Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Conciliation and Arbitration in New Zealand, Vol. 23
In the suggestion and formulation Of methods Of con ciliation and arbitration in industrial disputes New Zealand Occupies the position Of a pioneer. The germ Of all that has been attempted in other parts Of the British Empire in the direction Of either conciliation or arbitration is to be found in the New Zealand Act Of 1894. Two years before the wages boards Of the Australian state Of Victoria were created, and seven years before any other part Of Australia had adopted arbitration, the New Zealand system with its Councils Of Conciliation and its Courts Of Arbitration was in full working order. It is interesting to note this primacy in time, because the larger industrial development and the more complex problems Of the Commonwealth Of Australia have caused the results Of arbitration there to receive greater attention.
At first sight, this leadership Of New Zealand In legisla tion for the settlement Of industrial disputes Is surprising. The country is young and industrially little developed. Its population is small and the proportion engaged in industry quite meager. In 1894, when the arbitration system was introduced, the country contained less than white persons, and at the latest estimate its white population was only a little over Its factory population in 1894 was less than and in 1916 it did not exceed The number of trade unionists recorded in 1900 was a figure that by 1917 had reached While the latter number is not inconsiderable, the nature Of the industries in which the trade unionists are found reduces its significance. There is no large body Of miners or Of men employed in the metal trades. The largest unions are among transport workers, while builders come next in order. The Dominion, in short, has noconsiderable manufactures, no large industrial centers, and no powerful body Of organized unionists.
Its acceptance Of conciliation and arbitration was, therefore, the endorsement Of a principle rather than the adoption Of a policy forced by expediency. It is true that there had been a number Of strikes and much unem ployment in the preceding period, which had injured the employers and disheartened and impoverished the work ers. These disputes had made the relief Of unemployment a pressing problem, and that task was the first imposed upon the newly created Department Of Labor. But in the conception Of the first Minister for Labor, the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, it was more important to find some better method for the settlement Of industrial disputes. It was this spirit that prevailed in the inauguration Of the arbitration system Of New Zealand. As with the people Of Australia, the system was fundamentally the legislative expression Of a social ideal.
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