NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1359, 9 February 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

As might have been anticipated some of our unhappy "Liberal" friends have clutched desperately at the alleged statement by Mr. Payne that The Dominion's criticisms of the tramway strike would justify the Labour members in breaking their pledges to vote against the Government. One Southern organ of the Wardist party saysthatMß. Payne's "plain speak.ing in Wellington suggests that the Opposition's statement that it has the Labour votes in its party pocket is a rather empty boast." o*f course neither "the Opposition" nor anybody else ever said that, the Reform party had the Labour votes in its pocket; but we suppose that having lied itself cut of power the "Liberal" party can think of nothing else to do than attempt to lie itself back in again. Everybody knows that the Labour men* who pledged themselves to vote the "Liberals" out will be free thereafter to support or oppose the Reform party as they think fit. The "Liberals" appear to hope that there is still a chance that having discharged their trust by voting against the "Liberals" the Labour members can then put them back in office. The suggestion is not worth considering, although we may repeat that should a dissolution take place there will be nothing in the shape of r. "Liberal" party left for the Labour party or any other party to allv itself with. The Ministerialist journal under notice thinks that if what it calls "a new Liberal-Labour alliance" is formed it can defeat Mr.. Massey and that in that event "it is not at all likely that the Governor would grant a dissolution while such an arrangement were possible." This is a really delightful idea: that the Governor may bo relied upon_ to throw himself heart and soul into the quaint plan of the "Liberals" to wriggle back again to the Treasury benches. That is hardly what the Governor is for. But, of course, if the unhappy "Liberals" find pleasure in dreaming these dreams, nobody will want to disturb them. Their awakening to the cold reality of their position will come soon enough.

A useful article in the Morning Post reviews the labour dispute's which occurred in the United Kingdom during 1911. The statistics show that the* present unrest is of two years'' duration.

In 100!) tlie aggregate loss in working days of all the labour disputes was 2,773,!)5G days. In 1010 no fewer than 0,722,800 working days were lost, and this year up to the end of November there had been lost 9,tr(i,oCo working davs. Keckoning December at the same figure as last year, we find that an aggregate of over 10,000,000 working days has been lost this year. When it is 'remembered that before 1010-11 the average number of days lost per year for ten vears was 3,558,1iJG, it will lx) seen that the last two years have indeed been very full of labour troubles.

The figures for December not being available when the article was prepared, the I'ost shows that in the first eleven months of 1910, 498,260 workpeople were involved in labour disputes and lost in the aggregate 8,541,000 days' work, and in the corresponding months of 1911, 737,520 workers lost 9,476,900 days. In short, the disputes of last year affected more people, but did not last so long, a result which the Post attributes to Sir George Askwith's energy as a conciliator. It regards the increased cost of living as the root cause of the unrest, but notes as the most remarkable feature of 1911 the development of the idea of Hie "sympathetic strike," which Mr. Tom Mann and Mn. Ben Tillett had imbibed from the Continental Syndicalists. Their doctrines, as we have seen, are beginning to be preached in New Zealand, and here, as elsewhere, it has become apparent that whatever the ostensible cause of dispute, the real object of the new style of Labour leader is power. Turning aside from their legitimate endeavour to secure through the ordinary democratic channels a share in the government of the country, they now try to extort- power from the community by means of strikes and threats of strikes. The apparent success of these tactics in the local tramway dispute should not be allowed to blind the public to the fact that they have not as yet achieved much anywhere else, the public is stronger' than anv section of it, and these troubles will teach it how to protect itself.

LAST nights Gazelle cdntains particulars of the working of the railways from April 1 of last year to January 6 last-a period of 40 weeks. For the last four weeks of that period the net revenue from the 1173 miles of line in this island amounted to £97,735, and from the 1625 miles of line in the South Island to £61,915. The net revenue per mile of line was in this island £83 and' in, the South Island £38 The only thing to be said about this greater than ordinary disparity in the returns is that it emphasises with extreme clearness the fact, upon which we have so often insisted, that justice and national prudence require the ending of the policy of spending more money on railway construction in the South Island every year than is spent in this under-railed island For the whole of the forty weeks we find the following figures relating to net revenue (the corresponding figures for 1910-11 being given): lflin-11. 1911-12. Increase. North ... 'lUI.-W2 SOS.SM 4.'i'q()l South ... 1111,457 -12-1.038 .|.:,81 The position in the South, that is to say, has been nearly stationary The betterment of £-18,482 for fl,,j period comes almost entirely from the North Island lines. This tola! increase of less than £50,000 for Hie forty weeks promises ill fur the Minister's hopes of showing a boiler final net return on capital than in the preceding year. The railways management is evidently as sorely in need of reform as ever. The increase In the gross revenue amounted (for

(ho. forty weeks) to £127,719, and I his is almost i-utiri'ly due to the higher fjuvs. The expenditure has increased hy £79,2:57, and it is llius evident that hut for the higher fares the railways would he miming at a greater final loss than heforo. We trust that the Keform partv will s<v that the Head Office of the Departnient is turned inside out.

Signs that the people of Great Britain are rapidly losing confidence in the Asqi'itii Government continue to accumulate. Mis. T. Giusox Bowi.es, M.l', for King's Lynn, who went over from the Conservatives to the Liberals on the (iscal issue, has announced his return to his former allegiance. He has explained his position to his constituents in -a vigorous manifesto, saying, in part: The Liberal parly, inched ami controlled by Irish and Socialist allies, lias become the revolutionary parly. The spirit of destruction is abroad. Kvcry institution ol the country is menaced, hvory class iu the country, from millionaire to maidservant, is attacked. Never lias so much ruin been wrought in su short a lime. The Sovereign has been misadvised and coerced; the Constitution lias been destroyed; Hie Sovereignty of Parliament has been abolished; the House of Lords is maimed; the House of Commons debited. The national finances are brought to confusion; the national credit is gravely impaired; the nation itself has been brougiit to the very brink of war; while the sea power of the country, secretly bartered away to the foreigner, has only been rescued at the last moment by the' House of Lords. Throughout the State confusion reigns to-day; revolution and chaos are promised for .to-morrow. All this is thi! work of the coalition of factions united under the Liberal party; which, renouncing its l>est traditions and haiuliiii: itself over in turn to every revolutionary section, has brought tin! country into' tlie gravest dangers at home and abmid; and which, if allowed to continue iu power, will assuredly bring it to ruin. All honest men must now joiji in a supreme effort to expel from power tlie Liberal leaders who have brought the country into such perils, and must rally to the' ranks of the Conservative party, which alone can assemble the elements of resistance to national ruin, and restore the Constitution. These are strong words, but Mil Bowles has always been recognised as no mere partisan. His indictment of the Government is in part confirmed by a remarkable protest signed by 110.Fellows of the lloyal Society, the elite oi the scientific men of the United Kingdom. The document, which has been published in London papers, is headed : "Restoration of Freedom to the Houses of Parliament.'' The immediate object of the signatories is to demand the postponement of the National Insurance Bill until a better opportunity has been given of considering its novel proposals, its intricate details, its heavy direct taxation, its inequalities, and its far-reaching effect upon the interests of capital and labour, but they state further: "We protest against the present system of oligarchical government by the Cabinet, and wc urge that steps be at once taken to restore to the Houses of Parliament the power of initiative and criticism which they have undoubtedly lost." This protest was organised by Sir William Ramsay and the signatories . include Sir George Darwin, Sir Edward Fry, Sir Norman Lockyer, and Dr. Alfred Hussell Wallace, O.M.