THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9171, 20 August 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.) Parliamtnt at Play.—A Protest.— The Arbitration Act. There has not been 'much doing in ti Wellington this week, as the rejoic- si ings and confusions that have caused c: some local disturbances in Auckland have lured away many prominent per- 1: sous from the South and interfered a s' good deal with the general business p of the country. Before the Ameri- w cans came, and while they were here, it seemed a Utile ungracious to protest against the interruption of public business during the week of plaudits and swizzle, and I said nothing. Now that the Americans, having been dined and wined, have sailed * away, it is reasonable that some- * thing should be said. One is ael- E dom able to take Mr Wilford very J seriously, if only because he seems £ to have a conscientious objection to J being serious himself. But there * can be little doubt that when he ) objected to the stoppage of Parlia- J mentary business during Fleet Week he was entirely in the right. There was positively no reason at all why the Houses should lose a week at this stage of the session, and there were various good and valid reasons 1 whv they thould not. There is no I sense in trifling with legislation. I Parliament has much to do before it rises; and if any important work id left undone, die country must know : whv. This menacing matter of the Arbitration Act has to be dealt with and adjusted. That is a matter | many members (each for his personal reason) would love to shirk. Railsilting will not avail at all. Members, when they come to discuss the thing, will realise that they have to incur unpopularity on one side _or the other. The matter is of such immediate and vital importance to the country that it was simply an outrageous thing for Parliament to let go the reins while a number of members went on a picnic. In common courtesy, Sir Joseph Ward h,ad to go, but there is still an idea in some quarters that there are other responsible ministers in the Cabinet. Everybody knows what happens after such an excursion. This week there will not be any very serious attempt made to press on public business. ' It will be a week, not of pressing forward, but of settling down. And it is preposterous, having regard to the facts and the period, that many days and good time should have been frittered away in such a silly fashion. There is far too great a tendency to adjourn Parlia--inent on any excuse, or on none. If private buisnesses were conducted so, the commerce of the country would soon be threatened with imminent smash. Electors will do well now to insist that the rest of the session shall be devoted to serious and constant work. There must be no tolerance of any proposal to rise until the urgent work is done. It is really very difficult to arouse people to any saving sense of the extraordinary seriousness of the position. With the whole big business of Arbitration standing askew and higgledy-piggledy, interests of vast import are threatened. Any continuance of the grevious condition will provoke a widespread feeling of unrest and instability; and unrest and instability spell slump. There seems grave reason to conclude that mo t of our legislators are too busy with politics to have much grasp of affairs. Here we have employers complaining (with apparent show of reason) of their damaging disabilities. We have the workers on all hands declaring that their v/ages are inadequate to their proper support and development. We have small crowds of men clamouring about the scarcity of work. And the Act which stands as buffer between employers and employed—the Act which is provided to settle industrial disputes and lead tu industrial betterment—is virtually an Act in abeyance, an Act stultified, in many quarters an Act abhorred. If any man loves a critical position, surely hce is a position critical enough. If any man dreads a dangerous position, surely- here is a position fraught with sufficiently dire and definite danger. A year or two ago, we were advertised to the world a3 a Country Without Strikes. To-day, all over the country, men and Unions are at least thinking of strikes as obvious possibilities of the not distant luture. The Government, if it has not lost its head, at least seems to have lost some portion of its nerve. The law is either applied desultorily or altogether disregarded. Employers who commit breaches of the Act are punished; but workers who scoff at their own v/eaoon go free. I hate the mere idea of punishing men by imprisonment. I loathe the immediate results of industrial crises. But I have no doubt at all that if the Government would now enforce the law without fear or partiality it would be an excellent thing for the country, and incidentally an excellent thing for the workers. It would at least have the effect of forcing on a settlement. It would enable us to see just where we stand. It would compel Parliament to grip the necessities of the event and do something to promote a better condition. Let the law be amended by all means, if it needs amendment; Lut till the new law is accepted by the legislature, the old law should stand like adamant. In short, it is the plain duty of democratic government to administer a law Lhat affects a million men just as fearless]-' ana fairly as a law that affects one. 'in New Zealand, this tvranny of majorities is working to strange ends indeed, when it works to overthrow the" plain processes of government and mate a farce of administration. It is fully time that Parliament should show the country whether it meets to make laws or merely to play skittles. The laws now" to be considered affect the very life of the people. In so far a3 they are foolish or vile, the sweat of men and the blood of children will pay the price of foolishness. A drop of honest blood is worth more than all the champagne ever guzzled amid the waving of ecstatic flags, if democracy means anything. A aore throat may be quickly cured by a-plying a flannel bandage damptned with Chamberlain's Plain Balm. Ammo back, a pain in the side or che-st, should be reated in a similar mannsr. Pain Balm is also f.imoua for its cures of rheumatism For sale by all chemists and storekeepers.