Irresponsible Administration.

A dangerous, and it is not too much to say, entirely unconstitutional provision was eliminated from the Factories Act last session by the Legislative Council. It had passed the House of Representatives almost unnoticed, and but for the watchfulness of the Upper Chamber would have become law. It was an unostentatious little provision, that inspectors of workshops were to refer certain official communications from employers to « the Trades and Labor Council for the Provincial District. » There is no doubt that this cool proposal originated with the defunct « Maritime Council, » when that body, after working up a big and abortive strike, tried its hand at the congenial work of drafting the future Constitution and Laws of New Zealand. That such a provision should have been endorsed by the Government of the Colony and have passed the representative chamber is a proof that even the highest administrative bodies, unless kept in check, are quite willing to shirk their most important functions, and hand them over to unknown, irresponsible, and it may be, entirely reckless private associations, on the mere off-chance of gaining votes. The practical effect of the provision would be that some of the most important duties of an officer placed in a mediatory capacity between masters and workmen should be remitted to the latter, or rather, to some two or three men representing (perhaps misrepresenting) organized labor—the temporary executive officers of a voluntary association. Had this vicious provision become law, the Act could not have been administered, even under the most favorable conditions, without friction and bad feeling; while cases are quite possible in which a Trades Council could have so harassed an employer as to make it impossible for him to carry on his business. For making short work of this extraordinary proposition, the Legislative Council is entitled to the gratitude both of employers and employed.

This is not the only attempt on the part of the Government to place the Trades Unions in a quasi-executive position. By granting their delegates free passages to the labor conferences they have extended to them a privilege to which no private league has a claim, and which has been granted to no other. As, at the same time, Ministers have gone out of their way to flout other private associations possessing quite as representative a character—Chambers of Commerce and Masters' Associations to wit—there appears to be set purpose in establishing a most evil and dangerous precedent.

The instances are happily rare in which the executive powers of the Government have been yielded into irresponsible and private hands, and the results have, in each case, been mischievous. The Acclimatisation Societies are voluntary associations of gentlemen who are interested in introducing exotic plants and animals—the latter chiefly for the purposes of sport. Not only have they received aid from public funds, but they have been granted powers of taxation, in exchange for which they issue game licences. Irresponsible and injudicious, they have done more harm than good, and have introduced noxious vermin for the sake of mere idle amusement. Quite as bad is the state recognition of the so-called « Metropolitan » Jockey Clubs. These bodies have been granted a vast betting monopoly, and complete control over horse-racing in the Colony. By means of the « totalisator » they have raised a gambling mania that is without precedent, and is rapidly demoralizing the people of New Zealand. They have full power, which they often exercise in a very arbitrary manner, to prohibit any race-meeting, or disqualify obnoxious persons from competing. In order to increase the value of their monopoly, all private gambling is rigidly prohibited by law—any unfortunate Chinaman detected in a game of chance is made an example of—but every inducement is given to « invest » in the gambling machine run by the Jockey Clubs under State authority. Of course racing—the most popular amusement of colonial youth—is entirely conducted in the interests of the « totalisator, » and when at last, in self defence, the state is compelled to put a stop to the monopoly, the cry of compensation will be raised.

The obvious conclusion is, that the public should see to it that not the slightest executive or administrative power belonging to the state should be allowed to pass into private and irresponsible hands. It is a singular fact that a Government which openly takes Bellamy as its prophet, and professes to have for its ideal the most extreme form of state socialism, should so readily and spontaneously hand over its powers and remit its duties to the Three Tailors of Tooley Street.