THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1908. BACK TO CONCILIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14156, 7 March 1908, Page 9

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1908. BACK TO CONCILIATION.

iWhile the attitude of certain sections Of.the workers of New Zealand towards the principle which is embodied in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act has justly excited dismay on the part of the friends of that measure, there is another, and highly satisfactory, side to the picture. Those unionists who talk loudly regarding the necessity for workers retaining the right to strike, as though there was something sacred and noble about such a thing, may be the noisiest members of their class, but it is not by any means dear-that they are the most sensible, j And it is distinctly reassuring to know ' that, although occasionally this class of blatant orator receives encouragement from organisations that should take a loftier view of their responsibilities than is manifested in their indiscriminate extension of sympathy to unionist disputants, there has lately been, on'the part of many bodies of workmen, a pronounced tendency to resort to methods for the settlement of their dispute'that are not only wholly opposed to ,the system of striking but are suggestive of a desire to compose their differences with their employers in the most friendly manner possible. The number of cases in which the conditions of employment in trades wherein large numbers of workers are engaged have lately been determined, as the result of consultations and conferences between (representatives of the employers and the employees has beer rather striking. None of the other industries affected las been of the importance of that in connection with which a conference has this week been held in Wellington under the presidency of the Minister of Labour. But not any of them was unimportant, and the interests involved in the aggregate in the eases' which hare during the past few months been settled without reference to the tribunals established by law except in so far as it was desired to have the forco of an industrial award given to a voluntary agreement must have been very considerable. A movement of this kind can only be viewed as entirely commendable. The fact that it has taken place jnVolvea Reithgr; djstrust, nor coadeSr

nation of the State arbitration system. It was never contemplated by Mr Beeves, when he brought the Industrial Conciliation ami Arbitration Hill before Parliament, that the services of the Arbitration Court would be invoked, as was the capo for some years/ for the settlement of practically every dispute, great or petty, which was originated. His estimate was that about 10 per cent, of the cases which cropped up would be carried to the Arbitration Court. On the other hand, it may possibly be alleged that a oertain distrust of the Conciliation Board is implied in the fact that so many cases have been settled through the exercise of conciliation applied by an agency 6thcr than the Board. If this allegation is wellfounded nt all it is so only to the extent that the- personnel of the" Conciliation Boards is not regarded, as satis • factory inasmuch as it cjocs riot ensure that each dispute shall be handled by experts. The movement towards the submission of questions in issue between employers and 1 employees to private arbitrament may, therefore, fairly be cited by the Minister of Labour as an argument in favour of his proposal for the substitution of industrial councils, based on .the Victorian "Wages Board system, for Conciliation Boards as we know them. But the reversion to a. plan whereby the conditions of employment in industries are defined by voluntary agreement as the outcome of private conference is most significant, we take it, in the indication it affords that there are large bodies of working men in New Zealand who realise that employers and employees have a common interest in the industry in which they are engaged and that it is for their mutual benefit that the terms under which their work .is to be carried on shall be harmoniously arranged. •