THE ARBITRATION ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14244, 19 June 1908, Page 3

THE ARBITRATION ACT

k AUCKLAND COMMENTS, I (From Oub Own Correspondent.) j ( AUCKLAND. June 18. n In his address at the annual dinner of the Chamber of Commerce last night the president (Mr L. J. Bagnoll) referred at some length to the Arbitration and Con- v ciliation Act.' Jt was a very live question. he said. Die believe*! the design of the ~ author of the aot (the present High Com- jj missioner) was 1o prevent sweating, and to n prevent strikes, lie was sure all the em- „. ployers, especially the respectable cm- q ' ployers, and •he thought they represented c w) per oeut. of the employers, were pre- a , pared to pay a fair wage and not engage k in sweating. They were prepared to give ]| ' the act a fair trial. TJiey were under the v j impression until quite recently that the act g had been quite successful. Many had de- a olinod to express an opinion on the act 0 i until it had passed through a period of ,1 ! trial of bad times. He did not inow s j 1 whether times were not so good, but at a: i all events a change seemed to have come i over the working of the act. When a t| member of the Conciliation Board, Mr Bag- c i nail wcait on to say, lie had received a k circular from America asking a series of 1 questions about the act, and one of the ji questions was. How do you expect to en- C i lorco tho awards? It puzzled him to J answer, at first, but ho replied that he be- y, • lieved tho law-abiding inclinations of tliis a community -were 60 strong that the awards g ; would be obeyed and carried out. He had ti then two cases in mind. One was the case p ' of the miners of Waihi, who were awarded a ; 7s 6d a day wages by tho court after the is | "board had recommended 8s 4d, with which sum tho men were not satisfied, and ap- ! pealed to the court. The men went loyally to work for the two years.of tho award— • the '" two yeans hard" they called it—and [ the companies paid them Bs. Then a. re- . j commendation was made by the board in tho * case of the saddlers' dispute that tho men }• ' should bo paid. £2 2s per week. The cm- '' ployers were not satisfied, and went to tho t ; court, which awarded £2 Bs. The em- * ' ployers accepted the .inevitable and paid the 1 wage, and it seemed to him a fair thing v \ to assume that that was the way the act * ' was going to )>e carried out. He wa6 sorry to say lie had been a false prophet, [ Although the act had cured sweating, it s ' had not cured strikes, aud during the past j| year or two there had been a succession f . of strikes, some of tbem ratlier important. J It was quite clear, as Judge Sim had, said, 6 that it would be 'impossible to have both ' strikes and arbitration.—(Applause.) . The . Minister of Labour, and Parliament gene- ' . rally, were confronted with a very important and serioas difficulty. Personally, he *! sympathised with tho Jion. J. A. Millar ? 1 in tho position he was placed in, and he ' j opined he would be able to evolve a . satisfactory method of enforcing tire j' . awards.—He (the speaker) confessed he did not know whether it was possible to do so, e and, if it was. not possible then the Arbi- ? . tration Act, the court, and all the other ■ machinery would have to be wiped off the " ; slate.—(" Hear, hear.") It was a matter of J , very serious regret that there were such a _ j large number of men in the Dominion will- . ing to go out on strike, and that there - were so many who would aid and a-riot.— (Applause.) While the chamber was willing • , to agree with a measure that was enforced ± , on both sides, it could not see its way to ; support a measure that only acted in one - -way.—(Applause.) Mr W. F. Massey, Leader of the Opposi- , tion, also referred to the question of arbitration. His opinion was that in the form , in which the act appeared on the Statute ; Book compulsory arbitration had broken , down. He regretted it, for he agreed thoroughly with tho principle of arbitration, but if it was to remain on the statutes , it must be made more elastic, and less | 1 harassing both to employers and employees. ] 1 —(''Hear, hear.") ' ( , "The Conciliation and Arbitration Act ; - must be an act that plays fair to both ] • employer and employee, or it must go off ] I the Statute Book," declared Mr F. Baume, J , "-M.P. "There is no doubt that difficulties ( . and dangers beset the act and its amend- ] , ment, and the dangers have to be faced, i , and wo should all do our best to see that \ a workable measure is introduced that will, ' as the father of the act hoped it would, i s do away with sweating and prevent ! ) strikes."—(Applause.) ]