THE PREMIER AND THE FEDERATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1663, 1 February 1913, Page 4

THE PREMIER AND THE FEDERATION.

The proceedings in the Prime ! Minister's office yesterday, when a deputation from the Federation of Laoour waited on Mr. Massey,: recalls very; gratefully to our memory a deputation to Mr. A. M. Myers nearly a year. ago. .On that occasion. Mii. Myers broke sharply , with, the traditional suavity! and submissivcness with which opportunist Ministers had rcceiyed''dcpUtations, especially deputations comipg (usually without any real warrant) in the name of ;Labour.' He was asked, in effect, to betray the defence system, and lie refused with a very stiff backbone,' amidst a • general . applausq in. which we were grateful to have< tho opportunity of assisting. , Yesterday Mr! Massey was faced with a not dissimilar/task. He was faced by a deputation of Labour bosses, who imagined that they could rush him. ' They appear to have thought that the Prime Minister could be bulji'ed; they had indeed been led by. their foolish newspaper allies to imagine that he did not care to meet them, and had, indeed, made arrangements to avoid them. They learned yesterday that Mr.- Massey cannot be bullied, that he cannot beforoed < to turn the Prime Minister's room into a theatre for the unhandsomo rhetoric, that is- so easy at a street corner or in the columns of the anti-Reform press, and that he keeps his head and his temper in most atmospheres. The deputation l represented itself as speaking for all the trade unions of New Zealand, but it was finally/forced to confess that it spoke only for the Federation Conference—which is to say, for those Labour bosses who have their o,wn reasonß for opposing the Government.

Tho deputation's attack upon the Government's administration' of tho Arbitration Act and upon the Act itself-we shall deal with on another occasion, but tho chief concern of the 'Federationists .was to create the impression that tho Government had invented a special law and had proceeded to puj it into action with the object of "crucifying" the quiet and peaceful men who, at Waihi and Waikino, did nothing except terrorise men and women, hunt cripples, and use revolvers and gelignite against those who could not otherwise be persuaded to support the Federation.' The Prime Minister met this side of the deputation's case by. the simple enough statement that he merely took the steps which any Government was bound to tako for the preservation of the lifo and comfort of the men and women menaced by the unhappy dupes of the Federation bosses. Mn. Semple was bold enough to say that it could not bo proved that the Federation's supporters had broken the law at Waihi • but it was conclusively proved in a Court of Justico that the Federationists had broken tho law very seriously. Wo aro not sure that it may not after all be worth while to grant the Federation bosses the inquiry which they demand into the happenings at Waihi. At yesterday s deputation the _ preposterous charges of the deputation were supported only by second-hand and third-hand allegations, which will assuredly turn out to bo as baseless as those of the Federation leader who, under cross-examination in the Waihi inquest, had to admit the falsity of many of tho allegations which had been put forward by the Federation.

As a matter of fact, the Ffderation no longer commands the respect or the credence of any honest man, inside or outside tho unions.' Nobody believes it, and nobody believes in it. The vast majority of tho wageearijers of New Zealand distrust and despise it. Nobody has any use for it excepting a few very short-sighted anti-Reformers, whose hatred o'l the Government has overcome their prudence. And yesterday's deputation was not a deputation representative of the wage-earners, or of anybody sn,ve tho Labour bosses who attended tho recent conference. Tho'Prime

Minister knows well enough that the genoral body of wage-earners aro as completely out of sympathy aa ho is with these reckless men. Wo are very glad that he took occasion to observe that the deputation had not .dared to present to him all the resolutions the confcrence had carried. In tho exotic air of Wakefi.old Street it was easy enough to condemn our defence syßtcm and oxtol those who opposed it; but tho deputation had, not tho courage to submit its antipatriotic resolution to tho criticism of the Prime Minister, -'who would' here havo boon representative of 89 por cent, of tho people of New Zca--land. Tho public knows, however, that the conforonco which tho deputation represented stands for the destruction of bur dofcnco Bystem. It is not surprising, of course, that these Labour bosses lacked courage to stand by their resolution; _ cowardice is a common accompaniment of disingenuousnesa. On tho, whole, wo fancy that the net result of yesterday's proceedings will bo an increased public regard for the Leader of tho Government, and a sharp fall in the stocks of tno Federationists who aro so grievously misrepresenting the workjng men of this country.