“KILLED ITSELF.”

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 852, 28 August 1933, Page 7

“KILLED ITSELF.”

Employers’ Agent Attacks Court. UNIFORM CONDITIONS. * Severe criticism of the Arbitration Court was voiced by the secretary of the Canterbury Employers’ Association (Mr D. I. Macdonald) at a sitting of the Conciliation Council to-day, when the tinsmiths’ dispute was being discussed. One of the employees’ assessors, Mr G. T. Thurston, urged that as agreements had been reached in Auckland and Dunedin, an agreement on the same basis should be made in Christchurch. Mr Macdonald said that conditions were different in Auckland and Dunedin, the latter centre never having had the same conditions as the rest of the Dominion. It was also pointed out that Christchurch had to co'ntend with a tunnel rate on the railways, whereas Auckland and Dunedin manufacturers could place their products direct on the boats. Mr Thurston asked why it was that the Arbitration Court had always made the same conditions for all centres, “ The Arbitration Court merely looked at an award made for some other district and laid the same conditions down at the next place,” said Mr Macdonald. “ That i-, the reason why the Court killed itself. If the Court had done its work properly in the past it would be in a different position to-day. The Court took no notice of evidence or anything else.” Mr Macdonald added that the Court looked upon every trade as if it wefe, engaged in Dominion-wide competition and had given no thought at all to local conditions. Evidence as to these could be given for hours, but had no effect on the Court. That was why many employers did not want to have anything to do with the Court. Many employers had been dissatisfied with the Court for years, and a great many of them wished to be free of the Court. For the same reason many employees had been dissatisfied with the Court, and the time would come when the employees would advance the same arguments as the employers were now using and with reason.