NATIONAL DIFFICULTIES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1930, Page 17

NATIONAL DIFFICULTIES

WORKING OF ARBITRATION

ENGLISH INDUSTRIALIST’S VIEW

SOLUTION OF PRESENT PROBLEMS * ■ y \

(Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Aug. 18. The system of arbitration as it obtains in New Zealand and- Austialia is not unknown to British industrialists, but it is best known to those who have .close connection with' the Com? monwealth’s or the Dominions joint stock companies. It is thus interestincr to have the views on the British side. At the meeting of shareholders of the Millars’ Timber and Trading Company, Ltd,, held in London recently, the chairman dealt with arbitration, • and his remarks are worth quoting m full, for they aptly describe the workinrz of arbitration'.' ■ He said: — ' ? Tn this country an employer, if -he cannot afford, to pay a rate of wages, is ht any rate at' liberty to shut down or lock-out. In Western Australia they have what they call an arbitration system, and I am going to tell you hb.v ' that arbitration 'system works. It' -s one of the oddest arbitration systems that the world has ever known, and what it really conics to is this: Theoretically it is a beautiful system, which gays that when a trade dispute arises the parties shall be boitnd to take it before the Arbitration Court. That is all right provided that Court works on some settled scheme. But what happens in Australia is that instead of being an instrument of peace arbitra- ‘ tion .has, in all the years I have known it,' and I have watched its working with extreme and minute care, tended ■jni.the opposite direction. “Usually arbitration on the part of labour is in every case a matter of what fids been called heads T win, tails yoir' lose. There is no limitation to restrain any Arbitration Court in mustralia. It*consists, in fact, of one representative of the employers and one representative of labour, who cancel each other out because they are bound' to disagree, and then it is left to the Arbitration Judge'to decide. The judge may be a judge who knows nothing whatever of commercial conditions. There are no rules of evidence; any ease that is put up by a labour leader, is accepted at its full value, and if an employer wants to establish facts ne is told that he must bring forward accounts, extending over the whole industry—a task which is indeed almost impossible. The Lukin award, vhich was against the men, was. promptly repudiated. The men said.it was iniquitous, and they were not .going to be bound by it, and they wore not at all polite to Judge Lukin.” ~ This is an excellent description of a very odd system of justice, which a -s uie community tolerates. Both Australia and New Zealand arc paying rather dearly for their arbitration fetish.

The acute adversity now being experienced has led to some plain speaking by economists, financiers and bankers. • While-' the adversity df New Zealand'is not so severe as that of Australia it is similar in character, and the remedies suggested for Australia, apply with equal force to the Dominion. “ One outspoken Australian writer iays that to secure any early restoration to soundness substantial declines •in the cost of living and concurrent falls In wages and all operating expenses are essential to restore a balance in keeping with diminished national income, and to enable all expenditure on Government activities to contract. The greatest doubt at. the moment is whether political parties can be entrusted to adopt reconstructive measures that will be adequately effective. Political expediency can have no place in any scheme of sound readjustment. The urgent need is for stringent national ecoi imy, both public and private, and for the fullest development of profitable production. The root causes of national difficulties must be examined, and only scientific, proved remedies applied. The present emergency position,. as in a time of war,, has to be met without any concessions to sectional interests. The road back to prosperity will’ be long and ’ tedious, unless the rest of the • world experiences such a swift recovery from its’ economic ills that it should become capable of paying entirely unexpected high prices for exported produce. All indications are that no such. recovery can be expected, and that the tendency will be more and more towards pre-war standards. . A good many. New Zealand business men console themselves with the illusion that in the season 1930-31, which is now beginning, commodity prices will recover, but there is really no warrant for that belief. Gold continues to appreciate, and commodity prices must therefore continue to depreciate.