ARBITRATION COURT BILL.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17242, 29 October 1927, Page 8

ARBITRATION COURT BILL.

WORKERS DISSATISFIED. WANT IT WITHDRAWN. HON. G. J. ANDERSON’S COMMENTS (By Telegraph.—-Press Association.) . WELLINGTON;' Saturday. A large deputation, representing "the trades unions throughout the Dominion, and claiming Lo represent more than ( 0.000 workers, wailed on the Premier (Right Hon. J. G. Coates) and the Minister of Labour (Hon. G. J. Anders'on) to-day, protesting in. the strongest terms against the Arbitration Court Amendment Bill. It urged that the measure should he withdrawn. the deputation was accompanied by Messrs 11. E. Holland, P. Fraser and if. T. Armstrong, M.’sP.

In replying, Mr Anderson said tj;ere seemed To be a complele turn, round from what was in the minds of the representatives of labour unions about eighteen months ago, when he had received from almost every union in New Zealand a request that the Arbitration Court' should be abolished. Their views had altered. -He did not think there was a union in New Zealand that did not send him a resolution asking him to remove the Judge or alter the law immediately. After this bombardment he had received other resolutions from employers’ associations throughout the Dominion, also against the Court. The Minister added: “You apparently now find what I have always thought the Arbitration Court was —namely, the sheetanchor of the workers. Now you say it is proposed to piay ‘old gooseberry’ with you. The Bill js now in the hands of a Parliamentary Committee, and that committee will be pleased to hear evidence from you. What you have said will be placed before ibe committee, together with the other evidence.” The Minister concluded: “One thing has come from the bringing down of the measure. We' now find that you people and certain employers and others who were frantically asking us to remove the Act arc new asking us to let it remain.”