Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELD REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT 16, 1896. "MEASURES, NOT MEN." PROTECTION OF WAGE BILL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4378, 16 September 1896, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELD REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT 16, 1896. " MEASURES, NOT MEN." PROTECTION OF WAGE BILL.

Conclusive proof is furnished in another column of the repugnance with which the Wages Protection Bill, now passing through its final stages in the Legislature, is regarded by a class of workingmen representing one of the greatest industries of the colony. It is inconceivable that a Government professing so intimate a knowledge of the conditions of labour should deliberately commit itself to the perpetration of such an injustice as this measure mutt inevitably inflict on a very large proportion of the workingmen of the colony. The case presented by %he employes of the Consolidated Company cannot be of an extreme or restricted nature ; there must be many similar instances in which large numbers of men similarly circumstanced will suffer undeserved hardship. Possibly enough there are instances that afford proof of the intention of employers to evade their responsibilities by inducing or compelling their men to group themselves into accident insurance societies. But this measure pre-supposes all employers to be dishonest and all workmen to be writhing under an organised system of tyranny and extortion. Indeed this seems to be an article of faith with the Government in all matters in which the relationship existing between employers and workingmen come up for legislative or administrative treatment. The whole of the former, without exception, it seems, are hopelessly, incorrigibly bad, and are constantly engaged devising new ways of circumventing the law and victimising their employes. Whilst of the latter, the Ministerial opinion, embodied in some form in almost the whole of the statute law of the last half-dozeu years, is that they are incapable of courage, independence, or the ability to distinguish or enforce their rights. Hence it is not only that there i 3 such a welter of legislation on every conceivable aspect of wh:*t i 3 known as the labor question, but that every law framed on the subject is so sweeping, so arbitrary, so multitudinous in its aims, so destructively wide in its range, so galling and yet impracticable in its operation. No one benefits by this kind of legislation ; it Smites friend and foe alike, and is to-day a fertile source of much of the distrust, suspicion and bad blood existing between labour and capital. Indeed, this seems to be the chief purpose of its authors, and it scarcely need be said that they have the satisfaction of knowing that they have very largely succeeded in their designs. Even if it be conceded in the present instance that there are circumstances demanding the intervention of the Legislature, it can . not for a moment be maintained that legislation of the drastic character meditated by the Wages Protection Bill is either necessary or wise, from the standpoint of either of the classes affected by it. It aims at preventing under any conditions whatever employers and employes combining for the purpose of insuring the latter against accident. Is there any sine or intelligible reason why workmen and their employers should not be encouraged to insure, rather than thwarted and hindered in such a purpose, as long as the decision to do so is arrived at voluntarily and without any undue or unlawful exercise . of authority ? Even for the purpose of meeting the demands of the Employers Liability Act, where the action of the workmen is voluntarily, there should be no difficulty interposed to prevent joint action between employers and employed for the purpose of making provision against injury. Anybody who pretends to have any knowledge on the subject must know that in nine out of every ten cases accidents happen under circumstances that involve no legal responsibility whatever on the part of employers. It may happen through the carelessness or recklessness or inexperience of the workmen, and through no lack of precaution, foresight or care on the part of the employer. As the Consolidated Company's men pointed out, such accidents are liable to happen at any 1 moment in the work at which they are employed, and should an accident occur under such circumstances —under circumstances involving no liability on the part of the company— the men are prevented through, the interference of the Government from making any provision for themselves or their families during the time they are incapacitated from work. At an earlier period in thn history of the Blue Spur accidents were much more frequent than they are to-day. There was then no such society as that organised and maintained by the Consolidated Company's employes, with the result that appeals to the charity or generosity of the miners were incidents of very frequent occurrence. In those days the miners were in a position to respond to such appeals, but since then their circumstances have changed, and it is therefore necessary that reliable and organised sources of relief should be established by the men. But to this, it seems, a benevolent Government objects, preferring that a class, for whom it professes so much regard, should be compelled to endure unmerited hardships rather than that any semblance of good feeling or friendly under, standing between them and their employers should be permitted to exist.