596 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
2. The Labour Legislation of the Australasian States. 
By J. Ramsay MacDonatp, MP. 
Labour legislation in Australasia has been characterised by attempts to fix a 
minimum wage by statute, or by arbitration courts and wages boards; and as 
proposals are being made to adopt the same legislation here, | propose to discuss 
the circumstances under which the Australasian experiments are carried on and 
the economic possibilities of their success. 
The arbitration courts originated in a desire to prevent strikes, and the wages 
boards in a determination to prevent sweating; but their evolution has been on 
the same lines. The workmen have used them as a means of distributing national 
production favourably for the wage-earners. In the working out of this, a national 
policy, know as the ‘ New Protection,’ has been inaugurated, which, in its com- 
pleteness, means: (1) Protection against imports by tariff; (2) a settlement of 
wages by boards and courts; (3) a fixing of prices by boards and courts; and, 
ultimately, (4) the securing to the home producer a first claim upon home-produced 
raw material, ¢g., wool and hides. This is the logical and inevitable result of any 
attempt to solve labour problems by compulsory trade-unionism, or by fixing a 
standard nominal wage by statutory decision. 
The chief interest in these experiments lies in the attempt that is being made 
by them to secure a national standard wage, for the tendency of both courts and 
boards is to go beyond a minimum—strictly speaking. The New Zealand experi- 
ment proves, however, that where there is no agreement—and there can be none— 
as to what is an absolute standard, machinery created to settle a nominal standard 
from time to time will simply necessitate constant demands being made for an 
increase in wages. Such a thing is futile, and must break down.’ A national 
standard wage is a chimera. 
The New Zealand Arbitration Act has been more effective in organising the 
masters than the workmen, and it has therefore raised prices and rents. This 
I found to be pretty generally admitted, and is borne out by statistics. 
The Victorian Wages Boards affect only certain trades, and their influence upon 
prices is obscure. They seem to have improved the character of the work done. 
Nominally, they only level up to recognised standards, but practically they try to 
do more; and the workers do not accept that limitation. Their effect upon sweat- 
ing has been exaggerated, but they have been working under conditions which 
would yield to them a maximum beneficial result, e.g., small number of workpeople 
affected, a market on the rise, &c. The statistics supplied are not fully satisfactory, 
and no thoroughly scientific examination has yet been made on the spot regarding 
the actual effects of the boards. Coghlan’s analysis of wages shows their effects 
to be only very moderate. My own inquiries led me to the conclusion that they 
could be applied with comparative ease under factory conditions, with some 
difficulty under home-work conditions, and hardly at all under sweating conditions. 
Even if we agree with what I can only regard as the altogether overdrawn 
praise given to Australasian labour legislation by some writers, we must remember, 
in considering how we can apply it to our own country, the industrial differences 
between us and these Colonies. Particularly (1) the opportunities which a pro- 
tective tariff gives to increase nominal wages without increasing the workers’ 
share of the national production; (2) the small industrial population, and the 
simple industrial constitution of the Colonies which permit them to try many 
experiments, and elude for a long time what is finally to be failure ; (3) the fact 
that the Australasian industrial problem is limited and simplified by the considera- 
tion that production is as yet practically exclusively for the home market; (4) the 
greater opportunities of apparent success given to such courts and boards by the 
greater willingness of the Colonial mind to act generously to the worker, ¢.g., 
courts and boards have been known to award the most extraordinary jumps in 
nominal wages which no judge or arbitrator would ever think of awarding here. 
1 Cf, the Dunedin Seamen’s dispute ; the resolutions passed by the Annual Trades 
and Labour Conferences of New Zealand; the attacks upon Mr. Justice Chapman, 
President of the Court. - 
