ARBITRATION ACT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 11250, 15 April 1908, Page 6

ARBITRATION ACT.

(To the Editor of the Herald.) : .Sir, —Under the above heading,. 1 isoc ( Mr .Jcnkin.s attempts to answer my letter in your issue of Monday last. In liis reply he starts out with the stock argument about living having increased since the inception of the Arbitration Act; is he bold enough to say th:it tin: [cost of living would not have increased if there had not been an Arbitration Act passed? If he is, then he is a very bold man indeed. No,-sir, I still maintain (Mr Jenkins notwithstanding) that the cost of living has increased 20 per cent., or perhaps more, through causes over which we have no control than _ through the Arbitration Act; causes which your correspondent pleases to term '.'unnatural conditions." Well, that may be the right term; I will not quarrel with him übout the scientific term to apply to the elements 'or seasons. Your correspondent speaks of my martyrdom in the open; but, sir, only for Air Jenkins attacking a. society to which'l am proud to belong I would not have troubled to come out in. tho open in this particular instance, but I,will, endeavor, either.in the open or in the. bush, to defend a society formed to benefit their fellow man;. a .society which.'gives bin' members benefits' which no other'society gives. Your correspon-dent-says": "It is "not always the man who delights to see him name immortalised .in trades union minute books that docs the most for labor." I agree 'with him on that: point'; neither do I think it is correspondents who delight to be termed ink-splashers and such delighted terms as I have heard applied to some writers in the press. But, again, Mr Jenkins has never told-us. what'be'has done in the cause of labor; for instance, he might tell us what the living principles are which .he is following. Your correspondent says : "Surely Mr Catton has not read the writing on the wall." No, sir, I admit that I have not. Mr Jenkins must have been looking through a much stronger glass than I look through when he sees it. 'He also says : "There is a tinge of. humor, in my reference. to the Act and the price of carrots, etc." Mr Jenkins is evidently easily amused. He"says:: "Mr Catton and Mr Powell are both misled-if.they believe I attack' the administration.''/ jlr Powelj, in his letter, said,, and rightly, too.'-to. my mind, tliat:the fault was'-with- the administration, and! I could give more illustrations than -Mr -Powell gave in proof of that contention, and am - still open7i,o conviction that it is the fault of the Act rather than the administration, as Mr Jenkins has certainly failed, tb convince me on the point. ' As to' 1 employing workmen when employers have nothing for them to doj etc., I may say that I have asked a • number of individuals what construction they placed on it, and, strange to say, in... -each instance it was the same construction as I placed on it. I have also made a lot .of enquiries respecting the ''personality" of "Mr Jenkins, carpcn: ter or joiner, but none that I have asked have ever heard, of Mr James Jenkins. , The only Mr Jenkins I have heard of denies all authorship of the letter. Now, Mr Jenkins, will you tell me (confidentially like) arc you really and truly Mr Jenkins, or are you somebody else. Now, Mr Editor, your correspondent complains of. me not answering his questions, but he also has failed to answer certain queries'l put to him in my letter. For instance, I asked Mr'Jenkins if he could supply us with something better than the Arbitration Act: the only panacea that he trots out is the writing on the wall, but I think it must be written in Chinese letters, becauso no one seems to understand it except Mr Jenkins himself. In :trconcluding his letter, your correspondent speaks about the Act and blind contentment on the part of the worker. What has he to say .about the Blackball strike. Does he call that blind contentment,- I wonder. I take it that the\ Blackball strike is another "striking'' eiample of -, the failure of the administration of the Act. In .conclusion, if Mr Jenkins will climb down from his lofty pedestal and explain in plain language what he really wanted in answer to his first letter, -1 will .endeavor to do so, as I in my ignorance failed to grasp what he ..really" did mean. —l am, etc., C. CATTON, Secretary A.S. Carpenters and Joiners.