THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9024, 3 September 1907, Page 1

THE ARBITRATION ACT.

MR MILLAR'S PROPOSALS. MR FROSTICK'S VIEWS. There is probably no keener student of the Arbitration Act in the colony than Mr J. A. Frostick. He h«s watched the Act's progress ever sinco it was passed, thirteen years ago, and he has noted the changes it has undergone as interesting situations have arisen. He has taken special interest in the amendments that Mr Millar placed befor Parliament last week, largely on account of the fact that some of them follow somewhat on lines, he adopted almost from the first. This is notably the case in regard to the Ministers scheme to replace the old Conciliation Boards by Industrial Councils. Speaking to a reporter yesterday, Mr Frostick said that the proposal he had advocated for many years was the constitution of a Board of experts for each industrial district, each party' to a dispute to be represented on the Board. Mr Millar's proposal is to appoint a Board, or, as he calls it, a Council, (or each separate dispute. Mr Frostick sees a possible danger in this proposal. He feels that the Councils appointed in that way may be of a partisan character, and the only way he can see to overcome this difficulty is to appoint Stipendiary Magistrates as chairmen. Mr Frostick's principal objection lo the present Boards of Conciliation lif-s in the fact that they have been composed largely of men who had ro special knowledge of the questions that come before them. "The subject matter," he says, " is generally quite foreign to them ; they do not possess the judicial minds that members of the Arbitration Court bring to bear, and they do not gain the confidence of either side. I think that the Industrial Councils would be a'- marked improvement on the old Boards. They will have the advantage of expert evidence, and if they have good chairmen : they ought to do good work. I entirely disapprove of the proposal that the Court, on the recommendation of one of the Councils, should state whether or not an appoal should bo made. Either party ought to be able to appeal to the Court, but only upon specific points, and not upon the whole general dispute. If an appeal is made from a Council to t>ie Court, for instance, the appellant eh&ufcl state the points upon which ho desires to appeal, and those points alone should be dealt with bv the Court." Mr Frostick was asked for an expression of opinion in regard to the proposal to extend the definition of " worker " so as to bring all employees within it. "As Ion?; as it is confined to industries," - said, "I do not see any objection to it, but if it means that the privacy of a man's home is to bo subjected to visits from an inspector, to see that awards are not broken — well, I certainly do disapprove of it ; I entirely disapprove of it." Mr Frcetick does nob favour the proposal to establish two Arbitration Ocnirts, one for the .North Island an.l trie other .or tJie South Island. He thinks that it would lead to confliction, and he holds that much annoyance would be caused if an industry had to be conducted on different lines in different districts. No industry, he says, should be placed at u disadvantage 'in any given part of the colony ; the conditions in each industry should be the same in the North Island and the South Island, m the towns and in the country. He does not object to magistrates being empowered to infl : ct fines, subject to a rignt to appp&l to the Arbitration Couit against fines over a certain sum. An important point might arise, and the magistrate, instead of making a fine of £2 or £3, might increase the sum to £5, in order that the case could be taken to the Court. With the proposal to provide that all parties to a dispute shall be .employed at the trade affected, Mr Frostick is in complete accord. " The boot trade," he 6a,YS, "has achieved marked success under the Act, and of late years we have had no necessity to appeal to the Court. I attribute that very largely to the tact that there is a clause in our agreements providing that persons dealing with a dispute must be actively employed in the business. My opinion is that the man who might be called the professional agitator, who agitates with an object, generally a personal one, is not only a menace to an industry but a nuisance." . As to the constitution of the Court, Mr Frcstick is completely satisfied with it in all respects, and he would not like to see any change made there. He believes that it is much stronger than it was five or six years ago, because the representatives of the two industrial parties have been able to gain a great deal of judicial experience, and are now well practised in the art of sifting evidence and in dealing with facts.