The Arbitration System.

Waikato Argus, Volume XXIV, Issue 3757, 14 April 1908, Page 2

The Arbitration System.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Kaitangata, Last Night. The Prime Minister, at the invitation of the Coal Miners' Union, delivered a political address in Kaitangata, the Mayor, Mr Yates, presiding. Sir Joseph dealt at some length with the arbitration and conciliation system, his remarks on the sujbect being very much on the lines of his Auckland speech. The whole trouble under the arbitration sytsem, he said, was that it brought every man who was working for a living under an award to a dead level. If a man was a good worker he could not earn more than an inferior one, with the result that the man who wanted, in the same time, by the exercise of his superior skill, or better education, to earn more than the man who was not so skilled, could not do so. For that reason, he considered the country wanted a more perfect system of arbitration and conciliation. The law required amending and improving. The sooner the people discussed the matter with their representatives and among themselves the sooner would the country arrive at an improved system of arbitration and conciliation. They could not have a law on the Statute Book to prevent strikes, and side by side with it have strikes going on, notwithstanding the law. In the present trouble on the West Coast the Government had not interfered since the decision of the Arbitration Court, and did not intend to interfere. The Government was prepared to improve the system of arbitration and conciliation, though so long as the law stood as it was at present it must be obeyed, and if either side disregarded it, no one need step in and ask the Government to help. The Government would not do it, because it would be a dishonourable thing to do. At the conclusion of the address, Mr J. Mosley moved: "That this meeting expresses its thanks to Sir Joseph Ward for his address, and its continued confidence in him and in the Government he represented," the motion being carried without dissent.