NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4895, 28 September 1901, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Naturally a close and general interest

attaches to (he forCONSOmUTED CO.'s tones of the Blue claim. Spur Consolidated

Co.'s claim, and the success attending its operations from year to - year under the capable management of Mr Howard Jackson is a matter for congratulation on many grounds. Apart from the fact that the property in question has from an early period both in its present form and when in the hands of individual miners, been associated with the history of mining development in the district, it represents one of our largest industrial enterprises and contributes in a very large measure

to the spending powers of the district. Its value to the business life of Lawrence in this respect cannot be lightly estimated, and without its active operative existence something more than a serious inconvenience would, especially during recurring periods of. dullness, be experienced in the trading community in the district. This will be more readily understood when it is stated that during the last 12 months of the company's operations a sum of £3,140 was paid in wages, exclusive of a further sum of nearly £900 for work of a casual character. All this money goes into direct circulation in the district and, it is needless to say, must in such a comparatively small community as ours, be bl very weighty factor in the general prosperity. The difficulties of -working such a property and keeping it up to a paying point must be very great and such as tax all the resource and ripe knowledge of the company's general manager. Extreme and frequent climatic changes render steady or continuous operations impossible at almost any season of the year. The summer season is every bit as unfriendly and unreliable as the winter Beason, though during the latter period the breakages and damage are naturally greatest and most frequent and are an almost unending source of tronble, perplexity and expense. Last year appears to have been exceptionally prolific in disasters of this kind as the extracts which we reproduce in another column from Mr Jackson's annual report will sfcow. Their effect on the output of the mine the report states has been disastrous from a revenue point of view, but yet it is satisfactory to know that the company were in a position of being able to declare their usual dividend. It is noticeable that the tone of the meeting of shareholders held in London recently was exclusively complimentary and appreciacory ot the splendid servioe rendered by fcheir general manager, Mr J. Howard Jackson, as indeed it well might be. Nob even was heard the usual jarring note, due evidently- to that wontt and most insufferable form of all ignorance — the ignorance born ol a little knowledge — on the part of one individual shareholder whose fretful objections had become monotonously familiar io previous years. But on this last occasion, the gentleman in question appeared to have been clothed and in his right miud and, joining in the general chorus of well-deserved compliment to the company's general manager, made something like the amende for his former follies. When one remembers the long, dark daya of trouble through which the company painfully and feebly labored, threatening at any moment to sink into the bottomless abyss of liquidation, its position to-day strikes one as disclosing one of the finest examples of sound and capable mine-management in the records of the colony.

NEW SOUTH WaXl«, following the lead of New Zealand, has arbitration courts determined on rein N.s. "Wales. mitting the sebtle-

menb of trade disputes to a Court of Arbitration and thus preventing appeals in the future to the barbarous arbitrament; of the strike with all that it means to the disorgaaisatiou of industry and consequent national loss. This is interesting in view of the criticism to which that institution has been lately subjected in this colony. The Bill for establishing such a Court has passed the Legislative Assembly, though not without prolonged and somewhat bitter discussion. The main principle of the measure, that industrial disputes should be settled by arbitration instead of by the old-time methods of strikes and lock-outs, was not as a i principle objected to. The opposition to the measure centred entirely on the ! details of the Bill. This is the second measure of the kind that has been introduced into the New South Wales Parliament, Last year & Bill based exclusively on the measure in force in this colony was introduced, but public opinion just then did not appear . to have beou prepared for its acceptance and it failed to become law. But ou | this occasion the exhaustive report fur- { [ nished by Judge Backhouse, as a result \ of a study of the working of the Arbitration Court in this colony, has evidently ! enabled the New South Wales Government to frame a measure of an improved [ aud generally more acceptable character. \ Last year's measure contained provi- j \ sions for the constitution of Boards of Conciliation, which are, however, absent from the present measure, in deference, it would appear, to the conclusions of Judge Backhouse, who condemned the working of these tribunals as he found them in this colony. In their ! place, however, the New South Wales j i Government have substituted Boards of j Reference, which are intended to meet the requirements demanded of them by the employment of methods entirely ; different from those adopted under our ] Conciliation Boards. These Boards will be composed of representatives of employers and employes in the trade concerned who are to be consulted only at the pleasure of the Arbitration Court, and no provision is made for the payment of members of the Board. In almost every other respect the Bill runs | on the lines of the legislation affecting labor disputes in this colony. In Committee an amendment of a very impor1 tant character was grafted into the i measure. This amendment provides i for the imposition of a heavy penalty on 1 those who bring about a strike or lock- ! 1 out before a dispute can be referred to j the Arbitration Court. From the tenor of the measure it is evident that the New South Wales Legislature, while approving of the principles of the legislation on the subject in question passed in this colony, have taken care to avoid such mistakes as the touchstone of trial j and experience has broaght to light in j our Arbitration and Conciliation Act.