COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 July 1901, Page 2

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

Press Association—Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, July 25. The report of Judge Backhouse, concerning his inquiries into the working of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand, has been tabled in the House of Assembly. It says that'the Act has prevented strikes of any magnitude and has, on the whole, brought about better relations between employers and their employes than would exist if there were no Act, as it enabled an increase in "wages and other conditions favourable to the workmen,, which, under the circumstances of the colony, they are entitled to, to be settled without the friction and bitterness of feeling that otherwise might have existed. The report adds that the .effect of the Act has been undoubtedly to make the public pay generally more for the products o, industry, which has been regulated by the Board or the Court when the tariff is high enough or other conditions occur to prevent foreign competition. Judge Backhouse's report goes on to say that in New Zealand arbitration has enabled the employer, for a time at least, to know for certain the condtons of production and therefore 'o make contracts with the knowledge that they will be able to fulfil them. Indirectly, it has tended more to foster harmonious feelings among people generally which must have worked for the weal of the colony. "A very large majority of ,the employers of labour whom I interviewed favour the principle of the Act! The awards generally have been in favour of the workers; therefore it is easy to understand why the Unionists, to a, man, believe in the Act, and non-Union-ists, as far as my observation goes, find no fault with it.

Judge Backhouse adds that while the effects of the Act, sol far, have been good, the time has not yet come when it can be said, witli any certainty, that it is a measure which will provide a solution, for! all labour troubles, as since it came into operation in New Zealand, everything has ;been in favour of an increase of emoluments and the amelioration of the conditions of labour, and that there cannot be, the slightest doubt that wages would have risen even if there had been no Act. When I the lean years come, as come they must, when there will be curtailment instead of expansion, then, and not till then, can anyone speak with authority as to whether the principle involved is workable or not.