LABOUR LEGISLATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3018, 17 January 1912, Page 77

LABOUR LEGISLATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

VIEWS OF A GERMAN OBSERVER

d'aou Dub Own Cgbhespondkxt.)

WELLINGTON, January 11,

Dr F. Schone, a clever atad observant German who has been l»ere for some time studying our legislation and the_ labour problems, made some interesting remarks on the latter subject at a lecture last evening. Thsre is no doubt, he 6aid, that industrial arbitration, as far as now, has almost everywhere where it has been established, proved more or less a failure. New Zealand is the only country where serious efforts are made not to let it be a mere farce, as it certainly is to a certain degrero in some of the Australian States, and there is no doubt that a good many beneficent improvements have taken place here in New Zealand since the original act was passed in 1894, and it .'s unique in modern industrial life that there were no strikes in New Zealand in the 12 years from 1894 to 1906. Of course opinions are divided as to how much of this ha 3 to be attributed to the act. On tho other hand, he said, "there were only very few strikes before the act came into force, and there have been a good number of strikes in the last year, in the majority of cases in connjct with the law, and if you look round you observe aJI sort* of signs of unrest in labour circles. So even in New Zealand the problem is still far from being solved, and, even if it were solved, a system working here ;n a far-off country with a small population would more likely than not work in cur densely-populated European countries." After some further remarks, he pointed out one obvious disadvantage of the arbitration legislation. It certainly does not, he said, diminsh. but increases, the number of industrial disputes. Tliat is to say, of utterances of dissatisfaction. The arbitration system carries, as it were, a new unrest into the camp of labour. The object of the arbitration legislation, besides establishing peacs between the employers and employees, was to improve the conditions of life of the working elates. I sincerely sympathise with any efforts made in the direction of raising the standard of life of the working classes, but the men naturally regarded the arbitration and Conciliation Act as a welcome instrument for obtaining increases of wages, shortening of hours, etc., in regular periods, but for the asking; and here the expected happened, that as soon as the. court could not reasonably any more comply with their" continued demands, having to take into account the employers' interests just as conscientiously, the men began to grumble, and the difficulties commenced. As a matter of fact, conditions for labour are here more favourable than anywhere else in the world, and they would be even better if the very improvement of their situation by increased wages, etc., had not added anyhow to the general increase in the cost of living. On the other hand, the extraordinary dear labour is certainly not in the interest of New Zealand's development at large, i_n spite of her isolated position, or perhaps just on account of it. She will and must try to make herself more and more independent of foreign imports. She must try to increa.se tna industries of her own, so as to be able to supply herself. What New Zealand wants and at the same time she must try to find foreign markets, not only for her primary produce, but also for her manufactures. But she will never be able to compete successfully on the world's market with the output of European industries if she does not succeed to adapt quality and price to the standard and level ruling abroad. Under the present labour conditions this seems more or less impossible, and 1 think it is a patriotic duty of every labourer in New Zealand to realise this, and to eventually rather refrain from pursuing any trivial personal advantage than to delay or endanger the future of his country. "To me personally," concluded Dr Schone, "it always gives a somewhat painful sensation to hear people openly admit that they are fighting for the highest possible pay for the least possible work. It borders on claiming a higher pay than one's work is worth, which would mean to claim a premium on either ]azin?ss or mediocrity. On the other hand, it proves that those people look upon'their work as _ a thing they hate, and not as something that they have dearer at heart than anything else. Doing tho work ch?erfuly necessarily improves its quality, whereas labour that works by mere compulsion that objects against immigration from fear of competition, and that concentrates all its energies on fighting for advantages out of proportion to the industrial and economical state of things at large, is bound

to check the energy and spirit of com' mercial and industrial enterprise. What New Zealand wants is, firstly, people; secondly, people, and again people."