POLITICAL LABOUR LEAGUE'S PROTEST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9322, 24 August 1908, Page 1

POLITICAL LABOUR LEAGUE'S PROTEST.

DEMAND FOB, MR JUSTICE SIMS REMOVAL. A largo meeting was held yesterday^ in Cathedral Square, under the auspices of the Political Labour League. Mr A. Paterson presided. | Mr James Thorn. referred to the de- j eision of the Arbitration Court in connection with the farm labourers' caso, and moved — " That this meeting of Christohurch citizens, seeing that Mr Justice Sim refuses to grant an award to the farm labourers on the ground that it might arouse the resentment of the farmers, declares its strong conviction that he is unfit to occupy a position oj a judicial bench of this dominion, and hereby demands his immediate removal from his present position." Mr Thorn said that Mr Seddon had advised the labour leaders to organise the country workers, and had extended the meaning of the word "worker" in the Arbitration Act 60 that farm labourers .should be included in its operation. The ' organisation had been started then, and had struggled on until it was strong enough tofile a case. That wass done in 1906, but postponement after postponement of the case prevented its hearing until August, 1907. Since then the Union had been before Board and Court, had examined hundreds of witnesses, had been compelled to spend £650, and at the end of it all Mr Justice* Sim had refused to make an award. The speaker referred to Mr Justice Sim's telegram to the Conciliation Board from Greymouth, instructing it to make re- | commendations as to the terms of an award, and also to his reference to the minority report of the employers' representatives on the Conciliation Board, la dealing with the minority report, Mr Justice Sim had stated that they might just as well have stayed at home and saved the country its money ; and yet the learned judge practically endorsed evei"ything that these allegedly useless persons had suggested. "When a man showed himself t-o be of such a vacillating type of mind, it was only i right to condemn him as unfit for the performance of the judicial function. M" Thorn severely criticised the Court's refusal to grant 7s a day to day labourers while admitting that anything less was not a living wage. Scores of men, he said, were getting less, and the Court knew it, and yet they were compelled to M'itness the spectacle of a Judge- enjoying life on £1000 a year refusing to grant men with wives and families what he had said himself was a living wage. It was positively disgraceful, and ought to be condemned by every right-thinking man and woman. The Judge showed timidity and fear of the resentment of the farmers, and a I Judge who would not administer the j law on that ground was his own condemnation. Mr Tborn made reference •to a clause in the Arbitration Act j Amendment Bill which empowered the ] Court to refuse to make an award and to compel a party to the reference to j pay the costs of the case. That, he said, was one of the most dangerous clauses in a dangerous Bill, and any day, if it became law, a Union might find itself thrown out of Court with hundreds of pounds to pay in expenses. The refusal might bo made by th© Judge without even consulting his colleagues on the Bench. The- clause had been put in to meet the exigency of the farm labourers' case without the shadow of a doubt, and ought to be opposed by every worker in the colony. "The position," said Mr Thorn, "simply amounts to this: that a Parliament can pass laws for the mass of th© people, but one man. a Judge, can set them aside. It is (Lespotic-and dan-

gerous, and must inevitably result in industrial unrest and disquietude. No Unionist can tolerate this any longer. We must protest strongly,, and protest now." Mr A. Hart, president of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, .seconded the motion, saving that he deeply resented the decision , which would bo opposed by every Unionist in Now Zealand. The motion was declared carried, "with one dissentient. Mr D. G. Sullivan said that tho lesson taught by the decision was to " put not j-our trust in judges." What was wanted was the development of a strong labour spirit which would manifest itself in strenuous opposition to all forms of injustice. Arbitration Courts wero part and parcel of the capitalist system, i The Judge was drawn from the wealthy ! class, eduoated in a university, and surrounded by an environment' which inevitably inclined his sympathies away from the workers. The workers must never rest until they had abolished the capitalistic system, and that could only do done by class conscious political action.