Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-09-22
DEATH OF SQUATTER KING
w. F. Buchanan Owned Killarney
and Other Stations.
EW ZEALAND DISAPPOINTED
Census Figures Below What Had
Been Expected-Paper Fifty
Years Old.
Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.

Foreign Correspondence Of The Star.
MELBOURNE, August p, 1911.
1t is of interest at the present juno
ture to note the experience of Australia
in regard to arbitration courts as
method of settling labor disputes. the
Australasian. in a review Of the position
contends that the experience of the vari-
Gus states in the commonwealth affords
no encouragement to those who advocate
an extension of jurisdiction for the COM
monwealth arbitration court
After giving 1t a prolonged trial, the
journal points out, South Australia aban-
doned the system in favor Of the wages
board principle, successfully established
in Victoria. New South Wales has, in
effect. done the same, for, though there
is still an industrial court there, with ap-
pellate jurisdiction, the bulk Of the work
is done by wages boards. In Queensland
these are the only industrial tribunals in
existence, and from their decisions there
is no appeal at all Western Australia is,
indeed, the only state in which an arbi-
tration court now exists, and even there
it is contended the system is tottering to
its fall.
In support Of this assertion the Aus
tralasian writer quotes recent utterance
he had been watching the work Of the
court and had come to the conclusion
that its operation cOnduced to the feeling
OF rancorouS enmty which existed be-
tween employer and employe. 1t appears
that the acts governing the proceedings
We're so unskillfully drawn that, though
the decision of the court was expressly
declared to be final, the supreme court
has cut away its jurisdiction almost to
the vanishing point. The pickering and
wrangling which brought the New South
Wales court into contempt, and turned
even its own president against 1t, have
been repeated and empha sized, and the
comparative smoothness with which
wages boards are working in the other
states is observed with envy.
The Victorian Model.
There is, indeed, concludes the journal.
every probability of the Victorian model
being speedily adopted The essence of
this principle is the application OF ex-
pert knowledge Of local conditions by
representatives of each individual trade
to the regulation of that trade. This
is knowledge at which no general
tribunal, however brilliant In personnel,
proved fatal to the prestige of every
arbitration court of the kind which has
yet been appointed
Australia lost one of her squatter kings
IN w. r. Bucnanan, owner or Killarney
and many other great station properties
in the commonwealth Like the late
James Tyson, he accumulated his mil
lions out of grass. They catered for
beef-eaters. and themselves grew fat
fat figuratively, not in figure, for both
were physically spare men, But Mr..
Buchanan was In all other respects
very different type of man from the
social recluse, the eremistish bachelor,
Tyson
The squire of Killarney married and
brought up a family. He had broad and
Gas to those who did not know him) I'm
suspected human sympathes. He was
an ardent imperialist, and had deep
rooted belief in the genius of the Brton
and the mighty power for good which he
is exercising and is destined to exercise
in the world. From his great stores of
wealth he would give freely and gener-
ously to national or patriotic objects; he
was more discriminating in meeting de-
mands for local purposes. He believed
that few things were more abused than
charity. or more mischievous than lndis-
criminate almsgiving. Such man is
easily misunderstood. Hence it came as
somewhat of a surprise to those who
did not know the man when he and
few other patriotic citizens made prince
ly donations to the Australian dread
nOught fund.