514 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



ticular employments, will be able to do as they please. At 

 the present time there is the check which the free labour 

 gives. Under this system there will be no free labour. The 

 objection would not be tenable, dealing with the question 

 from the employers' point of view, and for the sake of argu- 

 ment, without regard to the interests of the labourer, the 

 employer would be in a far better position. Under the 

 system proposed the employer could not bring foreign 

 labour to the country to supplant the industry of the home 

 worker whilst the licenses continued. If a strike took place, 

 the result would be that the licenses of the home workers, 

 securing to them a permanency of employment or right to 

 prior employment so long as a strike did not take place, 

 would be gone, and the employer at liberty to secure other 

 workers for whom licenses would be available. During the 

 late strike in New South Wales there were no proper or 

 skilled wharf labourers. During the late strike in Queens- 

 land there were no skilled shearers, but the demand for 

 substitutes was supplied, although inefficiently, from other 

 quarters. If the strike had been that of bootmakers, 

 engineers, or other skilled artificers, it would have been dif- 

 ferent. It would be just the same under the proposed 

 conditions. I am assuming in the system I have indicated 

 the co-operation of the representatives of labour. No 

 system can ultimately secure industrial peace unless it 

 receives the assent of all classes in the community — all 

 uniting to perfect and promote it. I am assuming that under 

 the system the true relations between capital and labour will 

 be better understood, and that views will prevail far removed 

 from the antagonism of the past. 



The principle underlying the system proposed is already 

 recognised in Australian legislation to a far greater extent 

 than I am contending for. The richest lands are granted in 

 perpetuity at a sum far below their market or prospective 

 value in consideration of bond fide settlement and improve- 

 ments. Mineral lands have, in like manner, been granted 

 in fee in consideration of a definite expenditure, or upon 

 lease at a nominal rent under the condition of employing 

 workers. The richest gold mining claims may be taken up 

 and held indefinitely under an annual license costing ten 

 shillings ff>r each man in consideration of the conditions of 

 work. Disputes are efficiently dealt with by wardens, and 

 exemption from work is granted for necessary contingencies. 

 In Victoria the tram lines are a concession in consideration 



