INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION,

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1935, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION,

Coming from such an authority, the remarks made by Mr. Justice Frazer to the New Plymouth Rotary Club yesterday merit more than passing attentionProbably no man in New Zealand is better able to comment on industrial evolution than Mr. Justice Frazer, whose presidency of the Arbitration Court extends over a third of the period it has been in existence. And doubtless the fact that to all practical purposes he relinquished his position yesterday enabled him to speak with a greater freedom than would otherwise have been the case. His prediction that we are on the threshold of a fourth phase in the development of industry—a period of greater co-operation between capital, management and labour—is one which everyone hopes will prove correct. The world learns most of its lessons by harsh experience, and it is possible that the futility of the bitter struggle between capital and labour is at last being realised. Mi'. H. Valder's system of conducting his business, under which the employees are partners in the firm and share in its profits, is a practical example of true co-operation between the principal factors of production. Such a scheme may not be applicable to some undertakings, particularly those in which casual labour plays a big part, but it is the principle that counts. A number of private businesses have already started along the new road by tire provision of superannuation funds and profit sharing in a more or less limited form. In a world grown weary of economic disorganisation the ground is ready for the sowing of the seeds of closer co-operation, and Mr. Justice Frazer’s prediction may well become an accomplished and extremely welcome fact.