The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. THE ARBITRATION BILL.

Wairarapa Age, 10 November 1927, Page 4

The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1927. THE ARBITRATION BILL.

The principal effect of bringing down the Arbitration Amendment Bill has been to show that the people whom in one way or another it concerns are very much at odds. Organic ' cd labour and the organised employers are agreed in opposing the Bill. It has been approved, with reservations, by the Dominion President of the Farmers ’ Union (Mr. W. J. Polson) and by various other representatives of farming and dairying industry. Probably, however, a great many farmers are either opposed to the passage of the Bill in its present shape or look upon it with indifference. With opinion divided to this extent, it is most unlike? ( ly that Parliament will be able, in the dying jiours of the session, to hit upon any acceptable amendment of industrial law. Neither does it open any very hopeful prospect to suggest sim- , ply that the amendment of the Arbi- j tration Act should, be allowed to stand over until next year. Knotty problems of contentious legislation are not easily solved in a pre-election, session. i Any serious attempt to deal with the Act must be postponed. At the moment the only obvious choice open to j the Government and Parliament is between doing something that will please nobody, or doing nothing at all. There is, however, an alternative to mere postponement and one which, in our opinion, it would be wise to adopt. The Labour Bills Committee of the House of Representatives might be asked to undertake during the recess an inquiry into the operation of the Arbitration Act and the changes that are desirable. Some outside representatives, or at all events an economist of staining, might be associated temporarily with the Committee during the period of the inquiry. u

A deliberate investigation of this kind should give better results than it is possible to hope for under ordinary Parliamentary methods. Much of the evidence lately heard by the Labour Bills Committee, and much of the discussion based on this evidence, have been beside the point. The root problem. to be, solved, is that of doing economic justice to the farmer. Is it possible to devise a wages standard under which the farmer will not have to bear the brunt of bad times us- exclusively as, in his own opinion and that of a good many other people, he has to bear it at present? In other words, it is possible to bring wages into such a relationship with production and values within the Dominion, and with prices in oversea markets, as will ensure that the resources available in bad as well as in good 'times are shared fairly and equitably by all sections of the community? The farmer’s contention that he is penalised, unfairly certainly is worth. looking into carefully, and there are other phases of industrial law that call only less urgently for practical consideration. A very strong case indeed may -be made out in favour of the suggestion that tjie amendment of the Arbitration Aot should be inquired into at leisure during the recess.