INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION IN ENGLAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5805, 24 February 1897, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION IN ENGLAND.

♦ Our cable despatches tell of a strike having" been ordered by the Society of Amalgamated Engineers at Newcastle, in England, in retaliation for a, recent lock-out of blacksmiths by their employers. Of all forms of industrial warfare, the retaliatory is the most reprehensible, and if the facts are as stated in the message, the Newcastle engineers have clone a thing that will alienate popular sympathy from their caiise. Public opinion in all civilised lands is now in favour of conciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes, and though no country lias perhaps such a perfect system as New Zealand for dealing with such matters, most of them have provision of some sort. The Conciliation Act, which was passed in England last year, is one of the really useful measures that the Conservative Government has given to the country. A London newspaper of recent date says of it: — " The Conciliation Act has only been in force for a little over two months; but it is already beginning to bear excellent fruit. During the present week two strikes have been virtually settled by the exercise of the conciliatory powers vested in the Board. * * * The men have not obtained all they asked for, but they go back on honourable conditions, and their position is secure. * * * After a prolonged sitting a compromise was arrived at between the representatives of masters and men, which . now only remains to bo ratified by the different parties. These strikes wore not of first-rate importance, but they involved more than two thousand men, and v, ore well worth settling. The engineers' strike . threatened at one time to spread, and might have involved the whole engineering trade of the north of England. Alto-o-ethor, the Conciliation Act bids fair to bo the most satisfactory piece of legislation passed by the present Government." The above is very gratifying news ; but in view of the tactics of the Newcastle engineers it would seem that the English law requires to bo amended by provisions for its compulsory application in cases of svanton strife between workmen and employers.

of the coast that they might be planted on the lawn about the club house, and I could describe other extravagances which are possible only to the rich. I could write about the magnificent drives along the coast and tell you how these old nabobs sit here and watch the sea and roll over and over upon the sand, talcing sun baths on a hot February day. I could tell you how these men of money work up their appetites by walking. The air here is pure ; it is full of ozone j and one can wall: for miles without tiring. Then I might speak of the surf bathing. Think oi" it—there is turf bathing here in midwinter and there is hunting and iishinp; all the year around.