The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-08-04

women = vote IN the selection Oh cdcIl- |
bers. But / know that in that respect
the average type Of Member of Par
lament is considerably better today
than it was twenty years ago. before
women had the vote. ! do not feel
that you have anything to be alarm
ed about in extending that OF
justice 10 the ladies of Great Britain"
IabOur Legislation.
Mr.. FOwids. proceeding. said that
the first start with progressive legis-
latiOn came came after the great
maritime strike. previous to the cleo
ton of 1890. the first election they
had with one man one vote in opera
ton. The strike had demonstrated to
the workers that striking methods
were more or less obsolete. and that
if they wanted to secure improvement
in their conditions the best plan was
TO do it by constitutional means. In
the early nineties they passed an Act
called the Cancellation and Arbitration
Act. which gave powers first Of all
to a small Cancellation Council, and il
they failed to settle an industrial dis
ment of the women voters. l also
think that the character of b men
who have been returned to Parlia-
ment is better. Of course. that is a
hard thing to put down to any one
cause. because ] think the standard
Of life and morais-particularly as far
pute, then it went to the Arbitration
Court. which had power to fix the
hours of labour. the rate Of wages,
and various other matters in
ton with trade and industry. and
| when the Court gave its decision no
employer of labOur could employ any
person on any other conditions than
those laid down by the Arbitration
Court. tApplauSe.) That Legislation
was passed very largely at the wishes
Of the Labour leaders in the early
| ~ninetieS and had been in operation
ever since 1t was very strongly re-
sisted in the early stages and at the
lime Of it's passage bynearly all en-
ployers of labour. but later or the
workers had been getting dissatisfied
with the results which they obtained
from it. and it was possible for any
Union to cancel its registration under
the Arbitration Act and resort to the
old method of the strike in order to
get the best terms they could from
their employers. Probably they would
have seen from the papers that last
year there had beer a very serious
strike in New Zealand for some time,
and the remarkable thing was that
during that strike the stand which the
employers were taking was that they
would not employ anybody unless
they were registered under the Con
citation and Arbitration Act. While
the Workers had come to believe that
the Act was not doing them much
good, the employers, who had opposed
it SO strongly. had come to believe
that it was suiting them all right
tLaughter.) He was not going to say
that it had not done gOod-it had done
good. and in this way, it had brought
what they called the sweating EN-.
ployerS into line with the best en-
ployers. But there nae been amongs
the workers a widespread feeling tina
very little good had come to them a.
the result of that Act, and he agreed
that they had not got a great deal gu
of it. When the Arbitration Court in
: creased the rate of wages to be pait
: to the employee it operated all round
5 and it was very much the same as {
: customs tariff-an increase Of wage
being followed by an increase Q
+ prices all round, and the employe,
/, did not get much benefit from it. II,
I remembered in the early days OF tn
y Arbitration Act a I-abOur man. VIII
had been very successful in bringin,
( cases before the Arbitration Court an,
, getting increases of wages and bette
u conditions for the men he represent
. ed. stood for Parliament and at tn
l election he said he wanted to ge
{ another Court established Cour
" that wOul deal with rents. beca us
his experience "-aS that as soon a
y he succeeded in getting an advanc
" of wages for the employees the land
{ lords raised the rents and got all tn
benefits of it. That was one of tn
fundamental things in economies an
II politics. and the workers were rapid
ly coming to q realisation of that fac
( that the benefit of their advancin
CiyiliSatiOn was largely expressing IL
self in LAND values, and that a sma
u section of the community. who WeT
the landowners, We're reaping all ad
vantaSeS. From this he looked to tn
le progressive element of New Zealan
a concentrating its attack on that spe
is cial form of privilege and securing +:
= the people of New Zealand the benef'
Of that came from the widening of tn
At markets and other forms of nation;
Of activity which expressed itself in Ian
n values. In a new country like Ne
lie Zealand, where there were SO man
he different stages of growth and d.
m velopment, this question of the rel;
~ 4 t;npChin of man tn tho 1aHI - -L;~