THE GOVERNMENT'S ACTION

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1926, 8 December 1913, Page 8

THE GOVERNMENT'S ACTION

STATEMENT BY MB. FISHER. •'IN INTERESTS OP THE WHOLE STATE." Some interesting remarks on tho industrial situation ■ wero made by tlio lion. F. M. B. Fisher (Minister of Cus- • tome, at the annual dinner of tlio Wellington Letter-carriers' on Saturday nigi.it. Ho said tliat ho was not going to infringe upon tho' feelings of anyono present, but lie wished to tell them something of tho Government's attitudo in, tho crisis. They all hoped, on both sides, that tho storm centre had been passed, and that they wero Hearing tho end of the crisis. Tlicy hoped that whatever tho result might be, tlio' crisis would end in a more permanent peace than had existed during tho last few years. This, ho thought, was tho universal wish. (Applause.) What ho wished particularly to rcfor to was his own action, as Minister of Marine, in suspending tho provisions of tho Shipping and Seamen Act, so as to allow persons not qualified seamen to work tho ships. 11l his action lis had been widely criticised, bnt ho thought ho 'had dono tjio right thing. Tho position was a rather peculiar one, in that the seamen of Now Zealand wero not actually on striko; they merely declined employment. The Government had no power to make t'heso men work, and they did not ask for such power. All they said was that if>the qualified,men would' not. work thoy would see that tho wheels of industry would be kept moving. This was the position ho had to face. Ho had seen by that day's papers t'hat Mr. Belcher, tlio seamen's secretary at Dunedin, was going to tako a'live interest in affairs, and the speaker hoped ho would. If Mr. Belcher said next day that tho seamen would accept employment—and again ho had to ask them to remember that the men wero out on strike—ho was quite willing to cancel tho suspension of tho Act, so that only qualified men will bo employed on the ships. Opinions in some directions wero at fever 'heat. lie had nover been a feverish man himself, and ho lived in hopes that the day would come, aftor tho smoko and grimo of t'ho present conflict had been washed away, when tho peoplo of New Zealand would recogniso that, whether they wero right or wrong, they had been governed by right principles, and had guarded the interests of tho community as a whole. (Applause.) Mo was quito prepared as a member of tho Government to accept whatever judgment might bo passed on them for their action :'n tlio. present-crisis. He hoped that in the course of two or three years' time, when men's biains had cooled, and tho fever had passed away, that- tho peoplo would recogniso 'that, whether for or wrong, tho action thoy had taken was in tho interests of tlio whole State. (Applause.)