The Wanganui Chronicle AND RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1901. THE CONCILIATION' BOARDS.

Wanganui Chronicle, 16 August 1901, Page 2

The Wanganui Chronicle AND RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1901. THE CONCILIATION' BOARDS.

TttE defence of the conciliation Boards, if so it may be milled, which Mr Seddon made in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, was of'a kind scarcely calculated to restore confidence in those tribunals. The Premier seems to have regretted his out-spoken criticism of a few days' previously, when he declared that the "unions were riding the- thing to death," and he is now apparently anxious ,to placate'-thosa to Whom his words may have given often.c by "rubbing it m", to the other fellows. He had discovered, he •said, :.n speaking of the large mnr.bej; of employers "who. had bsen cited in connection with the carters' dispute at Auckland, that the Union was nob to blame for that. He conveniently forgot to remember the comprehensive character of his denunciation. Mr. Seddon did not say that the Auckland Carters' Union was riding, the thing to death: he alluded to unions in .general, and it is absurd to suppose that he was led to make such a drastic 'condemnation by the unsatisfactory circumstances surrounding a solitary case. Mr Seddon, it is well known, does not go about with his eyes shut. He. is wonderfully alert, and .his finger is never off the public pulse. Consequently he must be fully aware of the widespread dissatisfaction caused by the never ending labour | disputes, and the fact that the people have awakened to the fact that the Conciliation Boards have been the. medium through whiciii has been brought about the very .condition of things which they were created to prevent. The Premier's previous utterance, must therefore stand ! good: "The Unions are riding the thing to death." But, allowing, him the full benefit of ids attempted retraction in so far as it applies tojthat statement, it is difficult to find the slightest degree of consistence in the remarks which he made in the Houso on Wednesday. Mr Seddon commenced, by saying that he did not think the wholesale condemnation of the Conciliation Boards was justified, and immediately proceeded' to shower' unlimited condemnation, upon them. He found fault with the methods of their business and he quarrelled with their constitution. He went further, for he assailed the principle on which their existence is based by remarking that Parliament, by widen-, ing the interpretation of the Act last session, was responsible for the increase in the number of disputes before the Boards. There was, too, a kind of hopeless desperation in the suggestion that those unions which have recently come under the Act must .be allowed to do their share of citing. When they have finished, when the last employer has been roped in the meshes of an award, "there should be a lull in what appears to be incessant strife!" Evidently ith.o (Premier experts the pace to bs made, pretty warm for the ; remaining months of the present year, for | he "is looking forward to seeing at the beginning of next year a complete cessation of disputes between employers and employed." Theso are strange remarks to fall from the lips of the man who has fathered the labour laws of the colony. And Mr Seddon, be it remembered, is not what the lccu.l representative of the thick-r.nd-thin party servitude is v;or.t to describe as "an ass in a lion'o skin." Mr Seddon, as the maker of the law, says it has brought about a condition of incessant strife. He surely ought to know what he is talking about, and to contend that he was nob speaking by the book would be to suggest that the above quoted ' picturesqua similie should bs applied to him, mil >.us the llofi's skin. In the course of. the same speech the Premier had another fling at the Farmers' Union. Somehow, he does nob like the Farmers' Union. He repeated his conviction that the fanners were being organised for political purposes, a proceeding' which, not being initiated by his worthy self, is obviously tantamount to high treason. If the tail had been able to wag the dog, and tha Producers' Union hud swallowed the larger organisation, 'we should have liearcl no more about wicked political intentions. Now all that remains to bo done in order to counteract the effect, of the Farmer*' Union i» to bring it into opposition with the people of the towns. Bit it wil1. nyt work. The farmers are not going to waste tha strength of their unity in fighting their friends, and notwithstanding the jibes of interested and disappointed politicians the town and country will continue to pull together.