SIR JOHN GORST ON NEW ZEALAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10956, 26 April 1907, Page 1

SIR JOHN GORST ON NEW ZEALAND

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"If you want to know how it feels to have old age. pensions, women's suffrage, no millionaires, ho Labor party, no strikes— all, in fact, that is (still problematical in Great Britain, look at our youngest .colony,'' says Sir John Gorst, who has just re-yisited New Zealand after 'ii lapse 'of forty-three years. Sir* John once held a prominent position in New Zealand, and therefore knows the colony thoroughly... He is entering upon a lecturing tour in which he proposes to explain why this country should receive instruction from her New Zealand colony in matters with which we are now endeavoring to grapple. "The most extraordinary tiling in New Zealand legislation," said Sir John, in a chat with a Daily Ohronicle»represeittative, "is the Compulsory Arbitration Act. It litis been in existence some twelve years now. Everybody in .'the : colony, whether employer or workman, knows exactly tlie wages and the hours of work in the trade. If an employer does not conform to them he is liable to a fine of £200, and the non-complying workman to one of £10, though if the workman's union is a party to the breach, the union may be fined oh the higher scale of the en^loyer. "The • consequence is that no enormous profits are to be made in any trade in New Zealand. They have solved the problem of what. to do with the nvuh-n---aire by preventing his existence. . "Let me give you one example ot what a law of" this kind docs," continued Mr John. "There is an immense amount '-f slop clotliing made in New Zeabuid, n sinly by women. You know what Ihe ti-iie is here.- Well, there was an 'award? in the New Zealand courts fixing the wag.es at 30s a week, with a minimum of 27s 6d for a second-class hand.

"Yes, of course the industry is protected, but this is perhaps one of the cases in which protection can be justified. Living is, taken all round, cheaper in New Zealand than here, and in the 'wages there is no; comparison. "To my mind the best test of a courrtry's prosperity is the children, and the children of New Zealand are magnificent. You will not find an underfed child there, from the North Cape to the South.' NO LABOR PARTY. "There are few problems that we are now only timidly reconnoitring which New Zealand has hot solved, and apparently with complete satisfaction to the colonials. Take old age pensions. There is the initial advantage that, New Zealand has no poor-law, because she has no poor. Tlie pension is 10s per week, unless a manor woman has. an income, when it is proportionately reduced. "What struck me as a very marvellous thing is that there is nd labor party in the colony, and not a single labor member in the House of Representatives. I talked to some of tlie workmen about it, and their answer was, 'Why should we meddle. Avith what is not our job?' They are perfectly content to leave the machinery of legislation to others, who, by the way, are paid for their .Work." I , WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE. New Zealand has women's suffrage — has had it for years. Oine naturally asks Sir John whether the remarkable quality ot New Zealand legislation may bV attributed to this cause. He does not think so. "They have perhaps had an influence on temperance legislation ; women are always on the side of restriction in the liquor traffic. There is local -option now, and it is nossible that there may__bo more .stringent* burs, for a good deal "of drunkenness still exists in the colonies. But in other respects I do not believe that women's suffrage has made any difference. COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY. "The chief lesson I draw from New Zealand is that when people look after tlie Government the Government will carry out laws for their benefit. Tlie reason why ; we make no progress here in Great Britain is that people care more for party sides and party names than for their own interests. "If tlie working classes in this country we're like the working classes in New Zealand and knew their own interests — I do not say that you would have laws sucli as they have-, but at any rate your laws would be very different from what they are now. "Perhaps the Labor party in Britain may achieve this change in time. It is a curious reflection that the Labor party of Australia, which is very strong, has sent a commission to New Zealand to inquire into the labor laws' of the colony which has never had a Labor party."