CHAPTER 4—COMP™™ “ "RY ARBITRATION IN
NRT L.aND!

TVCONOMIQC, social, and psychological conditions in New Zea-H
 p land are similar to those of her larger sister dominion, the
- Commonwealth of Australia, but politically the two countries
are as independent of each other as, say, Canada and South Africa.
Other political conditions have led to the application of other
methods for the solution of rather similar basic questions.
The labor movement, politically and economically, was much
stronger in New Zealand when the first wage laws were passed than
in Australia. The Labor Party was strongly represented in the
government which drafted the first New Zealand laws, which was
not the case in Australia. }
New Zealand therefore based her procedure on the existence of a
strong trade-union movement and concentrated her endeavors on
compulsory arbitration—to better conditions of work and to better
wages without strikes. Victoria, proceeding quite differently—
through wages boards—ignored the trade-unions, as we have seen;
but several other Australian States, particularly New South Wales,
have followed the example of New Zealand, and the experience of
both dominions has been interwoven for a number of years.
Political Background

AT THE end of the nineteenth century ideas of evolutionist socialism,
 as propagated in England by the Fabian Society, spread in
New Zealand and had a strong influence on the systematic development
 of State intervention in industrial life. Theory, as well as
practical experimentation, has shaped these policies? Parallel with
the system of compulsory arbitration went the nationalization of
railways, mines, and various industrial services. A coalition government,
 formed by the Liberal and Labor Parties, directed these enterprises.
 Later on the farmers demonstrated more and more their
predominating influence in the economic and political life of the
country. They had nothing against State-owned shipping services,
coal mines, and railways, but they clung to private ownership of the
land. While they had first accepted a system of leaseholds, granting
 to the State supervision of effective agricultural management,
they endeavored more and more to convert leaseholds into freeholds,
i finally succeeded in their object—if not in the letter, at least in
effect. They did not ask for repeal of the laws for compulsory
! This chapter is based both on observations of the author on the spot at the time foltowing
 the strongest creative efforts (1906) and on documents collected thereafter.
? Letter of Mr. Edward Tregear, secretary of labor in the ministry of Mr. Seddon, 1906.
8 International Labor Office. International Labor Review, Geneva, March, 1924, p. 357 :
“ Experiments in State control in New Zealand,” by J. B. Condliffe.
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