NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4896, 2 October 1901, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

It is a source of consolation at the pra-

sent moment when

the rjßE>flEK's the lamentations of " industrial peace." the industrial and political Jermiahs are filling many nervous, thinblooded people with dire apprehensions for the future to be as sured by the Premier that the condition of both workers "and employors has ira proved ; " that of the latter in greater proportion, if anything." And then, a* if to bring perfect peace to the troubled mind of the poor employer in whoso .imagination the future is pregnant with such industrial troubles as the world has ; never known before, he added : " I look forward noxb year to a period of industrial peace " But is this possible? We have always regarded the Arbitration Act, as tho most beneficent and enlightened piece of legislation ever placed on the Statute-book of ihe colony ; but great as our admiration for ib is we do not for a moment imagine thab ib is going tcLbring the kind of " industrial peace" thab Mr Seddon speaks of. Jn- | dustrial peace, in the b^sb sense of the term, it certainly has brought in so far as it has made sbrikes and lockouts, those survivals of a barbarous ape, impossible. But though ib keeps the industrial dogs of war securely on tho leash, ib has nob brought peace or content.or broughb employer and employed inbo sweeter or more confiding mutual relations, It has produced a compulsory artnedtroce and I a permanent one, Jet US hope, But. as regards the " iaduaGiial peace " of which the Premier speaks, can ib bo- hoped or imagined that the presenb comparative 1 prosperity which has justified the raising of wages of alrhosb every cla^s of workmau in the colony will last. ? And when tho porenuial decline begins and employers have been bitten and the general community are feeling the piuch of hard times will not ifoe existing industrial relations between employer and employed have to be recast from apex to base? The time will come — one of acute mental hearing may almost de-

tect i's approach even now — when workshops will be no longer glutted with pressing work, when prices will come down even quicker than they have gone up, and when artificers and laborers j are walking the streets. Will the decisions of the Arbitration Court be then maintained ; will they be submitted to? What stomach will the men have in the " winter of their discontent '" for going into the Labor Courts to fight for high wages when they cannot obtain wages of any kind whatever? And the people, the general community, 'out of whose pockets , really comes the difference between a living and a prosperous wage, what of them? They will also cry out to be relieved of the pressure which they now bear if not with equanimity at least with pa tien Ge. The programme adopted by the Waitahuna branch of the ns.farmeb&'union— New Zealand Farwaitahuna branch mers' Unionris both programme. sensible and practical though there is w ' one item that does not strike us as being^g altogether appropriate in its application j. to- the conditions existing in this part of *> the colony. We refer to the following r ( — " That the compuLory clauses in the f Lands far Settlement Act should apply f to Native as well as private lands." j This item, we understand, was the subject of prolonged discussion before its . adoption was finally decided upon, and ■* though we are not aware of the nature " or direction of the discussion yet we can easily imagine that it might nob unreasonably suggest many things to ; those who consider, and rightly con- . sider, that the guardianship of that splendid piece of legislation, the Lands j for Settlement Act, is the duty of every colonist and especially of every farmer. « Candidly speaking, we. have ourselves *, looked upon this plank in the Union > platform as something in the form of a foil, however delicately put forward, to the appropriation of private lands, as a kind of suggested alternative, adroitly put forward, to the special purpose of the Lands for Settlement Act. In this, however, we may have been mistaken. It is possible it may have been incorporated to meet the special exigencies existing in the northern parts of the North Island where there are large areas of magnificent Native landa in a stale of nature. Bnt granting that to be the case it is difficult to see what application it has to f.he conditions existing iv the South Island and especially to this part of ' t.he Inland. Of course it is not to be oxpected that the platform adopted by any branch of tho Uniou should be fi amed on lines of parochial narrowness or Lbafc each branch should limit the horison of its vision to those interests that only concern its own immediate district. The Union is a national organisation and the aims of the branches, while not neglecting local conditions, should be generously national and colonial. But while admitting this we still think tbab district;' requirements should emphatically obtain precedence and that accordingly the Government should be urged to give effect to the Lands for Settlement Act with more . vigor and earnestness than it has been * doing for some time past. Had such ajrr j addition been made to Ibe clause ill question it would have dispelled whatever tincture of suspicion that may, in the opinion of some people, attach to it and it would certainly have been viewed with warmer and more general approbation. The sai fatality by which two men employed on the DunLOSS OF LIFE ON stan Lead dredge DREDGES. lost their lives by 1 the swamping of a boat last week once more exemplifies the imperative necessity for the adoption of every reasonable precaution that may tend to reduce .the chances of accident in the dangerous occupation of river dredging. Until an official enquiry has been held into the circumstances attending the death of the unfortunate , men nothing can be said as -to the causes that led to the sad occurrence. Special rules dealing with .the working [ conditions of dredge mining on the river have been laid down by the Mines „ Department which, if observed, should have the effect of considerably mifiT^* 5 mising the risks inseparable from the : more dangerous kinds of work devolving on dredgemen. The observance of theseI special rules are imposed upon em1 ploye's as well as employers, and where | workmen wilfully violate the regulations laid dowu for their own safety em- ■ ployers are empowered to take action in* the Court against them, and indeed it is' I their duty as well as their interest to" ;do so. For instance, in the work of running lines between dredges and the banks of swift-flowing rivers, which is - admittedly one of the most dangerous features of a dredgeman's occupatioq, | the boat's crew so engaged are bound Vy ! the regulations issued by the Mines Department to wear life belts, and experience has repeatedly proved the neceaI sifcy of this rule being observed. Equally | dangerous is the work of taking a heavily coal laden boat from the bank ! to the dredge and in this, as in the othep, case, the precaution of wearing life belts during the operation should be equally imperative. It does nob seem, from the particulars furnished, that the two men 1 who jumped from the boat and perished' in the river had provided themselves with life belts. Had they been aq equipped at the time the chances are that their lives would not have been' sacrificed, Whether it was incumbanC on them to have been so equipped we are not in a position to say, but certainly if the rules laid down by the Mines Department do not make the wearing of life belts apply to coaling in the river equally with the running onfc of lines an oversight so manifest should be attended to at once. Even with the adoption of every precaution that foresight or experience can suggest there are still dangerouß possibilities whios will at times cause loss of life and it is.' therefore," the duty of the Government' to exhaust all reasonable precaution's in reducing accidents to the lowest possible minimum.