VARIOUS VIEWS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13750, 12 September 1908, Page 5

VARIOUS VIEWS.

EVIDENCE BEFORE THE COM? MITTEE. THE RIGHT TO STRIKE. (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 11. The evidence taken by the Labour Bills' Committee in regard, to the Arbitration Bill contains a large amount of interesting matter. The witnesses represented all shades of opinion, and they were examined in detail. MORE CONCILIATION. G. R. Whiting, representative of the Federated Bootmakers of New Zealand, said that the slaughtermen's strike and the Blackball strike would never have taken place had there been in existence machinery- for securing a prompt hearing. -"We are told, that there are a number of strikes taking place at the present time," he added, "but I do not know whether they can be termed strikes. At any rate, I see nobody'in Wellington appearing to be the worse N for the bakers^ strike, and, as far as % I can see, there is as much bread available to the public as there was before the strike; We say, however, that, no matter how drastic the clauses or an Act might be, it would be impossible to prevent strikes altogether. # You may lessen them by good legislation, but it i would be impossible to prevent them. The clauses in the present Bill will only cause more strikes." THE LAST RESOURCE. James Horn gave evidence on behalf of the Trades Conference. # He spoke on the lines of the resolutions passed by the conference. He supported strikes as a last resort. "We do not wish to be compelled to lay down our arms, as it were," he said. "A great statesman said that, although be believed in arbitration for settling disputes, to disarm the nation wbuld be foolish. Yet we are expected to lay down our arms and accept without protest or complaint anything the employers like to do to ns and anything the Arbitrntion Conrt likes to do *to ns.

Every principle of unionism is violated in the Bill with its repressive coercive methods of dealing with labour affairs. What we want is that the facility for settling our disputes by the methods of conciliation provided by Mr Reeves' Act be extended." The witness spoke strongfr against the proposed needs wage and exevtioß wage. "If thY employer wants to, pay a good man more than another man, why j cannot he do it?" he said. *'It is not, the workers wno are responsible for the dead-levejism we hear go niuch about. It is the employers. The ft>remium bonus system has all thefbad points of the piecework system* in that it might be used, and is used, to unduly speed the men up and force them to work above their physical capacity. The unionists of the Dominion are not going to stand that sort of thmg> STRIKES JUSTIFIED, Patrick Hickey, a Westlarid delegate, stated that he regarded strikes as justifiable, no matter what occupation the workers concerned were following. The Minister : Notwithstanding that danger to life may be necessarily engendered? Witness : A danger to life would not be engendered. . : The Minister: Are not the lives of infants and invalids largely dependent on the milk supply ? , " £ Witness: Let municipalities control the milk supply. - : Mr Alison: Do you consider that, when a strike takes place, the workers in other industries are- justified in te aiding and abetting the strikers? Witness: Most decidedly. The Minister: JMen have a right to strike when it suits them? Witness: Yes, when it suits them.