LABOUR DISPUTES BILL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 19961, 15 December 1913, Page 5

LABOUR DISPUTES BILL.

VERY EASY PASSAGE

PRINCIPLE NOT ASSAILED

(By Telegraph—Special to Chronicle.) WELLINGTON, December 14.

•Much comment has been excited In tne House by the fact that the Labour Difprtes Investigat'on Bill went through nil its stages practically unopposed. The clauses which it contains were fiercely denounced by the extreme Labour section in the country when they wore first brought down in the Industrial CO--1----c-ifiation and .Arbitration Amendment Mill, but tfcere w:».r, no corresponding outcry in the House when the actual, details (provision for the secret ballot •and compulsory conferences prior to strikes and lockouts and so forth) camo up for consideration. There was a good deal of talk in the second and thir-I reading debates, but on each occasion the- strike was the principal theme, and iho Bill itself came in for only cursory and passing notice. The second reading ivas carried by 54 votes to '1. :md tho third reading on the voices, and when tho Bill was considered in Conilnitteo clause by clause early yesterday morning not a, single division was even tilled ior. This is tho treatment that the House accords to a non-contentious itieasuro which this Bill was .at iir.se declared to be by the Red Federation and. its supporters, and the Committee stage lasted only about a quarter of an hour, and tho House rose at 3-45 a.m