The Star. SATURDAY,AUGUST 22,1908. THE FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9321, 22 August 1908, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY,AUGUST 22,1908. THE FARM LABOURERS' DISPUTE.

The Arbitration Court has gone to *arth with a vengeance in connection •frith the Farm Labourers' dispute, for after considering the report of the Conciliation Board it has thrown up its Itfcnds in despair and announced that it in impossible to make an award. For ( %$& years almost the position of tho taSSpi labourers has been before the #q>*tt*yfcry, the original dispute having "1(66^ referred to the Conciliation Board j^ far back as 1906. In the interval, at 'twt jenormous expense, the Board has -Ji.e_/r# hundreds of witnesses on both . jwSjBS, it has sat day after day until its irafctings tlireatened to be interminable, j f^Kfe had threshed out for it every pos-[isab-o -phase of the dispute, and it has msfte£ed to exhaustive and illuminative Wplanations of the situation from both *„&& farmers' and the employees' representatives. Tho result of this wide cx.toeriettce was embodied in a comprehenef,isp report presented to the Arbitration 'f®art, which in a wordy reply, columns Jfo length, " full of . sound and fury, '--p^ifying nothing," has confessed to its incapacity to .do the work fcr ■ l^rP 1 ** was <--reatc<l* Tt would be/difls- -,»])&- to imagine a more weak-kneed or _pslbgetio attitude than that adopted .J*'ihe members.of the Court —with the Jg£cs|>-ion of Mr M'Cullough—and it wwildi really have been better if Mr . -justice Sim had not sought to justify so -^Sborately the finding of his Court. -His contention that the Court has a discretion as to whether it will or will not ijrnake an award is as extraordinary as r%\s'i. admission that it declines to do <>o ifefr-f ear of rousing the resentment of the jffenners. This is tantamount to saying 7IJBat tho Court has power to over- - Tide the enactments of Parliament, and if'lthat tho farmers have power to overVide the Court. Thus.do we arrive at r the ultimate rulers of the dominion. As (- it-matter of fact, the Court simply ad*_its that the issues submitted to it /Were so involved and so far-reaching jthat it had not-sufficient intelligence/to fc<feal.witk them. As a consequence, and to save its face as far as possible, it has Ajporitented itself with propounding a few 'fcalf-hearted and wishy-washy recomimondations to farmers, a 6ort of firstvßt&ndard " Hints to those who go on j.thie land," which the farmers, of course, „;wilt promptly ignore. The Court's de•cision is not so much a blow at the Arbitration Act as one at its own* constitution. If there should be any possibility •of A misconstruction of the Act along th*» liftes suggested by Mr Justice Sim, •that, is easy of amendment during the present session, but apart from that the Court 'has admitted its own incapacity ;so.'fr&nk__y that the question of its. personnel will haTe to be considered by the ;woyern_ment. It is impossible that the ..-•matter should be allowed to Test where .._fc is. Tho workers have already announced thefr intention of beginning all bver again, and they will face the long " piid' Arduous campaign before them at sl6ast with the satisfaction of knowing that public sympathy is entirely on fheir side, whilst the Arbitration Court .jfts-tf has earned only *the contempt !>&&& is a natural corollary to its spinefow __d inept action.