The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 6000 Weekly. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1903.

Waikato Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1500, 6 March 1903, Page 2

The Waikato Argus [PUBLISHED DAILY.] A Guaranteed Circulation of Over 6000 Weekly. FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1903.

The Arbitration Court was claimed by its authors to be an infallible panacea for the stoppage of industries consequent on strikes and lockouts. This notwithstanding, there is a lockout in the furniture trade in Auckland. The Court increased the wages of the men from Is Id to Is 3d per hour. The employers state that their objection is not because good men are not worth the money awarded, and they have retained the services of the best and most industrious trndesmen, but have discharged all whom they do not consider come in this respect up to a fair standard of efficiency. Their position is strengthened by the fact that owing to ihe bad state of the furniture trade in Melbourne and Sydney they are enabled to import all they require at a lower price than they can manufacture in Auckland and pay the wages demanded by inferior workmen. The duty is 25 per cent, or one-fourth of the value of furniture, and to this freight and charges have to be added. The manufacturers in the action they bavo taken are quite within their legal rights. They are prepared to pay the wages laid down by the Court, but only to men selected by themselves, being Unionists. There is no law to compel them to employ men any more than there is a law to force a man to work for any given wage if he does not so desire. It is tolerably clear that the workmen have overreached themselves by inducing the Court by their statements to increase their rate of wages. One thing is clearly demonstrated, and that is that in consequence of the protective duties every man who buys a chair or a table pays 25 per cent, more for ic than its legitimate value. This is one of the beauties of a protective policy. The whole population pays an enhanced price for the protected article, in order that a few may be paid higher wages than they actually earn.