HASTY JUDGMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14340, 12 January 1911, Page 5

HASTY JUDGMENTS.

There are some remarks of Mr Beeby, Minister for Labour and Education in the New South Wales Labour Government, based on his flyina; visit to New Zealand, which we are unable to lot pass. Mr Beeby, whose information is of course derived from ministerial and departmental sources, is naively pleased ■with the effects of the industrial . legislation of this country. "An outstanding feature of tlic_„Go•verninent's policy in administering the laws," he states, " was the broad sympathetic treatment Every industrial law was treated 09 an actual reality, and both sides were compelled to fairly and honestly observe the laws.'' This trill be a surprising verdict to those who have seen, in the case of the West Coast strikes, for example, how the Government is sometimes much more ready to waive, or alter, an-unpopular law than to enforce it. The Arbitration* Act, which, is the basis of our industrial system, ia at present in such a pass that a section of the workers are calling for its abolition, and are proposing to appoint Mr Peter Bowling, t the advocate of strike tactics, as against political measures, ami the enemy of Mr Beeby's own Labour Government, as a Dominion organiser,pf labour. At the same time the employers aTe dis satisfied with the endless regulations and restrictions by which their industries are enmeshed and impeded through the 'Act, ami nave this further grievance, that it is much easier to enforce its provisions against themselves than against the .worker. Mr Henry Broadhead, secretary of the Canterbury Employers' 'Asstv ciation, than whom there is no more complete authority on New Zealand's industrial legislation, has pointed out quite recently that. " scarcely has the employer had time to thoroughly understand and adapt himself to the labour statutes passed in one year than he is confronted with others in the next, and many of these laws, especially those of recent years, carry with; them, not only Undue interference with our inanufacturers and employers _ of labour generally in the carrying on of their industrial concerns, but an increase in the cost of pro j duction." K our industrial legis- . lation has been.a great success, " why is it that so many of our industries, including the iron an:] brass industry, boot and shoe manufactures, and - the output of woollen mills, either absolutely or in proportion to population, have decreased of recent years? Mr Beeby is more critical of our education system, but though there is room for criticism there, very few of .those who oppose the • Department's methods wduld complain of stagnation or dearth of "ideas." The complaint which they are 'disposed to make is that it is subject to too many "ideas." If Mr Beeby, anxious to say.something pleasant in return for hospitality, had referred to the tremendous enterprise of * the New Zealand Government in raising loans —a point on which he was discreetly silent—it would not have been possible for anyone to dispute his remarks.