WHERE THE WORKING MAN RULES
I had lost myself in Auckland. I had been visiting our American consul
in one of the suburbs under the shadow of Mount Eden and had started
back on foot when I met a rosy-cheeked, bright-eyed, healthy-looking
young man and asked him to direct me to my hotel.
“I am going that way,” said he, “and if you will walk with me I will
show you.” So we went along together.
“How are times here?” said I.
“Very good,” was the reply. “We all have plenty of work and we get
enough to keep us from starving.”
“What is your business?” I asked.
“I am a carpenter. I have a job building workmen’s houses for the
government, and I get sixteen shillings and tenpence ($3.75) a day.”
“What hours do you work?”
“Oh!” with a laugh, “my hours are not bad. I work only forty-four hours
a week and have a half holiday Saturdays.”
“But how about wages on Saturday?”
“The wages are just the same as for the other days. I suppose I should
say I get one hundred and one shillings per week instead of fifteen
shillings and tenpence a day.”
This conversation gives you some idea of work and wages in New
Zealand. Though there is some variation among the different industries,
forty-four hours is the usual working week of the labouring man, and
every one has his weekly half holiday. For any work beyond the standard
number of hours in a day or week the men usually get paid time and a
half or even double time.
My carpenter friend is typical of the New Zealand worker, who is
a well-paid, well-housed, and well-fed individual. I noticed in
Wellington, as here in Auckland, a general air of well-being and
prosperity. The people are polite and friendly and do not seem inclined
to take things in too much of a hurry. They are proud of their town, as
I think they have a right to be.
Auckland is the largest city in the Dominion and is about the size of
New Haven, Connecticut. Its spacious inner harbour, which has five
and a half miles of smooth deep water, is thirty miles from the open
sea. There are nine wharves, swarming with business, but they are not
sufficient for the fast-growing port, one of the trade centres of the
South Pacific. The annual imports and exports come to more than a
hundred million dollars and the figure is growing rapidly.
The city is built up and down hill. Even Queen Street, the chief retail
business thoroughfare, is not entirely level. All the tram cars start
from the foot of this street, serving not only Auckland itself but
suburban towns within a radius of eight miles. The lines are owned by
the city, and every one is divided into fare zones of two cents each.
Taxicabs are very expensive here, for New Zealand has to pay around a
dollar a gallon for gasoline, which is imported from the United States.
Here, as elsewhere in the Dominion, the working men are the lords and
their unions have dictated many of the laws. The famous conciliation
and arbitration acts not only recognize unions of workers and unions
of employers, but encourage their organization. It is provided that a
workmen’s union may be composed of fifteen members and any such union
may come under the law by registering itself with the Department of
Labour. Three or more employers may form a union and register. The
Conciliation and Arbitration Act was supposed to provide for the
peaceful settlement of all disputes between employers and employed.
From 1894, when the first act was passed, until 1905, New Zealand
had no strikes. Although this legislation has not entirely prevented
strikes in the last twenty years, it has undoubtedly reduced their
frequency and severity.
New Zealand is divided into eight industrial districts, each of which
has its Council of Conciliation. If there is a dispute, complaint may
be made to a council by either party. The council sends for persons and
papers, and after examination gives a judgment, which is filed as an
industrial agreement.
If either party to the dispute is not satisfied, however, an appeal can
be made from a council to the Court of Arbitration of the Dominion.
This consists of three members, one of whom is a judge of the Supreme
Court. One of the others is nominated by the national association of
employers, and the third is named by the trades unions. This court
gives the case a rehearing, and its judgment is final. It can fix wages
and working hours, and it can impose fines. It may assess damages upon
the parties to the suit, and all the property of the loser can be taken
to satisfy such claims. If the judgment is against a trades union or
an industrial association without property, the individual members of
the organization are liable.
The unions do not have to register, and a registered union may, after
due notice, withdraw its registration, but so long as it is registered
it must abide by the decisions of the Court of Arbitration. Failing to
do so, it may have its charter taken away from it. The advantage of
registration to the unions is that only a registered union can have an
employer brought before either a council or the Court.
Whether registered or not, the employer must appear. An employer or
worker bound by an award or an industrial agreement who takes part in
a strike or lockout in the industry affected is subject to heavy fine.
Unless fourteen days’ notice has been given, a strike or lockout in a
public utility or an industry dealing in the necessities of life is
considered a statutory offence, even when the party in fault is not
bound by an award. A strike in the milk business or on a railroad or
street-car line would fall under this provision.
I have before me the official reports of a number of industrial cases.
Here is one that came before the Council of Conciliation in Dunedin
at the instance of the Dunedin Painters’ Union. The Council decided
that the painters should work from eight o’clock until five on five
days of the week, and from eight until twelve on Saturday, one hour
being allowed each day, except Saturday, for dinner. The decision fixed
the number of apprentices, and it provided that employers should hire
members of the union in preference to non-union painters.
In the case of the Bakers’ Union of Christchurch the Court of
Arbitration decided that overtime must be paid at the rate of time and
a quarter for the first four hours and at the rate of time and a half
for every hour thereafter. The decision limited each journeyman to but
one apprentice, and fixed the term of apprenticeship to four years. It
provided that no carter could be employed in a bakehouse, but that a
baker might send out his employees to deliver bread, provided they were
not required to work overtime.
Decisions of the councils and the Court may establish the rate of
wages not only for the parties to the dispute, but for others in the
same industry, although local and trade conditions are always taken
into consideration. For instance, if the Court fixes the wages of the
bookbinders in one district at so much a month the bookbinders in other
districts will at once demand the same and most likely get it. Not all
the cases are decided in favour of the unions, however. In determining
fair rates, the Court of Arbitration has tried to find out the minimum
on which a worker can live in decent comfort and also what wages each
employer can give and still make a profit. Awards run for three years,
when a revision may be asked. At the expiration of the first three-year
period after the arbitration law went into effect the unions entered
the Court with new demands for higher wages, but in many cases the
increases were denied.
[Illustration: The Christmas holidays come in New Zealand’s summer,
and roses and sweet peas take the place of holly and mistletoe.
Nevertheless, the people stick to home customs and eat the plum
puddings of the British season.]
[Illustration: Most of the land requires expensive fertilizers to
produce grain. Therefore New Zealand raises wheat only for her own use
and depends on sheep and dairy products as money makers.]
[Illustration: Put a New Zealander near water and he will get into it.
Many great swimmers have been developed, but accidents are so frequent
that drowning is sometimes called “the New Zealand death.”]
To an American, the Dominion laws fixing hours and wages and regulating
relations between workmen and employers seem radical, but the New
Zealanders do not think them so. They claim that as a people they are,
like their British ancestors, naturally conservative. Their government,
they say, has been compelled by force of circumstances to go into
all sorts of things, and reforms have come about in a natural and
orderly way. For example, it was essential that farmers should get
their produce to market. There were no big capitalists ready to finance
railroad building, so means of transportation had to be provided by the
government. The insurance companies did not adapt their rates to the
conditions of the country; so the government went into competition.
Twenty-odd years ago the New Zealand coal-mine operators took advantage
of a diminished coal importation from Australia to put up prices for
fuel. The government met this situation by working the coal beds of the
public lands on the west coast. This it has continued to do, supplying
its own railways and competing in the open markets with the private
mine owners. The latter say they can stand the competition quite well,
since the government mines are worked at a higher cost, not because
of a difference in wages, for wages are regulated by law, but because
the state miners take things easier and produce less. The “government
stroke” is a common expression here for the way state employees do
their work.
Again, take the story of how the Court of Arbitration came to be. It
was told me by one of the officials of the Labour Department. Said he:
“The workingmen won their power in New Zealand through a strike that
failed. At that time the unions controlled many branches of trade and
they were fairly well united. The Maritime Union, whose members handled
all the freight at the wharves, was an old organization, with plenty
of money in its treasury from assessments throughout a long period of
years. As the funds increased, it was decided that all new members
should pay an initiation fee proportionate to the share each would
have in the assets of the treasury. There were but few labouring men
who could do this, and the number of new members fell off. Although it
could not handle all the freight, the union would not permit non-union
men to work. The ship owners would not stand this. They took on extra
men and defied the union. The union men struck, and through their
relations with the other unions brought about a general strike all
over New Zealand. Their demands were unreasonable, and the sympathy of
the people was with the non-unionists and the ship owners. Men came in
from Australia and elsewhere to help break the strike. The feeling was
so great that even clerks in the stores asked for vacations, put on
overalls, and worked for a time as stevedores. The result was that the
strikers were badly beaten, and they knew it.
“Then they reconsidered the situation and decided that their only
chance for a fair show in the future was in electing working men to
Parliament. They began their campaign at once, adopting the rule that
every candidate of their party must be a working man. They argued the
question of their rights in the shops, on the streets, and on the
stump. The people outside the labouring classes became interested in
the struggle. Public sentiment changed. It was seen that there were
two sides to the question, and enough working men were elected to
Parliament to give the unions the balance of power. Organized labour
in New Zealand has never had a majority in Parliament but it sent up
enough of its own men to be a powerful factor in shaping the laws of
the Dominion.”
After the end of that great strike one of the first questions
Parliament considered was how to avoid such conflicts in the future.
How could it best look after the interests of the three parties to
labour disputes--the employers, the employees, and the public? The
conciliation councils and the Court of Arbitration for industrial
disputes were the answer the legislators found to their problem.
The workman’s grievance against the “company store” and the “company
house” does not exist in New Zealand, where payment for labour in goods
is illegal. In any action for wages, any goods or articles furnished by
the employer or supplied on his premises cannot be brought forward as
an offset, nor can the employer sue his clerks for things so bought.
Workmen must be paid in money, and at least once a month, if they so
desire. In absence of written agreements those engaged in manual labour
must be paid weekly, and if not so paid they can attach all money due
or thereafter to become due to the employer on the work. The wages of
those who receive less than ten dollars per week cannot be touched for
debt and where a man goes bankrupt the unpaid wages of his clerks and
workmen for four months preceding are preferential claims on the estate.
For many years the government built workmen’s houses, which might be
leased or purchased on the instalment plan by wage-earners. In the
serious shortage of houses after the World War these operations were
extended. Parliament appropriated about five millions of dollars to
be lent to employers and corporations for building workmen’s houses
and apartments. The law allows borrowers from the government’s fund
to erect workers’ houses costing up to thirty-four hundred dollars,
and the money is advanced on five-per-cent. interest. The workmen get
title to the houses by paying each week a little more than the ordinary
rental charge for such homes.
As in Australia, the weekly half holiday is compulsory and the factory
owner or merchant who keeps his place open after the hour for closing
is fined for doing so, whether he requires his employees to work
or not. I find a record of a man in Foxton who kept two boys under
eighteen years of age at work on Saturday afternoon. He was called up
by the Court and heavily fined. Another man employed a carter to work
on a half holiday. He paid five dollars and costs for so doing. It is
the same with all classes of clerks and it is the same in the factories.
The day for the weekly afternoon off is not specified by law, but is
usually fixed every January by the authorities. In some towns it comes
on Tuesday, in some Wednesday, in some Thursday, and in many Saturday.
Saturday is the day usually chosen by the factories, even though the
stores in the same town may close on another day. If Saturday is the
day fixed there are certain classes of storekeepers such as grocers,
butchers, and market men, who may choose another day for their weekly
half holiday.
On half holidays the streets of Auckland and the other towns in the
Dominion are as deserted as on Sunday. The hotels are usually open, but
as far as I can see, there is much less drinking at such times than
one would expect, and nothing like that on Saturday afternoons in the
cities of Scotland, or even in our own towns before prohibition. Most
of the people here go to the parks or out into the country. There are
cricket matches, golf tournaments, and outdoor games of all kinds.
As a people, the New Zealanders are devoted to sports. In football, the
national winter sport, New Zealand has held the world championship.
Everyone, men and women, boys and girls, seems to play games of one
sort or another. They go in for tennis, golf, hockey, polo, and all
kinds of water sports. Owing to the great numbers who swim in the
lakes, the rivers, and the surf, there are many fatalities every year,
and drowning is sometimes called the “New Zealand death.”
Like the Australians, the New Zealanders love nothing so well as
gambling on horse races. But here the betting is regulated by the
government and one seldom hears talk of crooked methods. Betting is
done through a machine, the invention of a New Zealander, called a
totalisator. Only those actually present at the track are allowed to
bet, so there are no poolrooms such as have caused so much scandal in
the United States, and there is no gambling by telegraph or telephone.
All but ten per cent. of the money placed on each race is divided among
the winners. The tenth held out goes to the government and the club
that stages the event, the club taking three fourths of the amount, and
the government the rest. At the meets the horses are all on view for at
least half an hour before each race. After a spectator has satisfied
himself as to how he wants to place his bets, he goes to the betting
machine, gives the number of the horse on which he wishes to invest,
and purchases tickets stamped with that number. The lowest price for a
betting slip is two dollars and a half, but tickets at ten times that
amount may be had.
The totalisator, or the “tote,” as it is always called, is a score
board with slots in its face. Under each slot is the number of a
horse, and above each number is the amount bet on him. Another window
gives the total amount put up on the race, and at the left is a board
showing the dividends that the winner will pay. The “tote” pays only on
the horses that win first and second places. Two thirds of the money on
each race, minus the ten per cent. for the club and the government, is
paid those betting on the winner, and the other third is divided among
the backers of the second horse.
Seeing the throngs at the races, at football matches, and on the
beaches, one feels sure that in New Zealand Jack will never be a dull
boy on account of all work and no play.