AN INTOLERABLE TYRANNY.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3060, 23 April 1917, Page 6

AN INTOLERABLE TYRANNY.

There never was a less excusable strike (says the Auckland "Star"). No tyranny of employers is alleged; the •miners say frankly that conscription oiily is the issue. '. . . In 1915;according to the latest issuo of the "New Zealand Year Book," there were 4156 men employed in tho coal mines of New Zealand. Seeing that tho North Auckland mines, whicli produced 3,386,000 tons in 1915, and tho Canterbury, Otago, and Southland mines, which produced nearly 12,000,000 tons, are not involved in this strike (we leave the Waikato mines out of ac-. count), the number of men who are trying to hold , up tho country must be considerably less 'than 4000. This handful uses force to try to compel the Government to drop an Act that was passed by an overwhelming majority u? tho people's representatives. This, is an autocratic, not a democratic move; it is an attempt to upset representative government. We most earnestly hopo that tho miners will sco the error of their ways, and that the strike will end in a day or-two. liul if it does not, tho people of New Zealand must bo prepared to takn up the challenge

and fight to the end. Ab whatever cost of inconvenience; loss and suffering, representative government must be upheld.... If the miners feerßJst the question for the people to decide w>ll be: Who is going to govern this country, the Government and Parliament, elected and responsible to. tne people, or a handful of men in. one industry. ,. There can be only one answer. The people will look to the Government, not only | to take firm action in order to obtaiii the necessary supply of coal, but as far as possible to see that, the community is not .exploited by those who may. seek f.6 tike advantage of the community's "distress;

A TIME FOR ACTION. Obviously it is a time for citizens of all classes to set a firm lip (says the Ohristchurch "Sun"). It would be the rankest folljt to disregard the possibilities of the strike extending over weeks. Unless a settlement is effected within the next fortnight, the business of the country will bo dislocated, the community will be put to grave inconvenience,' and the labouring class deprived of its supply of household fuel during the sharp opening weeks of winter. Further, many of the workers will be without the means to purchase the ordinary necessaries of life, for the continuation of the strike over an indefinite period will mean that thousands of hands will be thrown out of employment at a Reason when they would suffer most acutely from depleted purses. Indeed, that is one of the direst prospects in view at the present time. Capital and philanthropic institutions generally will be affected; and transports and hospital ships held up should sufficient coal not be forthcoming, and all because that notoriously disturbing element in the industrial world, the Miners' Federation, wants the abolition of conscription. At least that is the ostensible reason, but there is evidence that other matters connected with working conditions also have assisted the ferment. _. These wrong-headed fellows persist in their traitorous policy undeterred by the fact that they cannot pqssibly succeed in having ■> the Act repealed. Public opinion is too strongly convinced of the need and justice of conscription to allow the Act to go. No fairer means of obtaining men for the quotas could be devised, and the strikers know it, but will not admit it, mainly because tliey are what they are and because they see in prevailing circumstances an opportunity (as they think) to assert themselves and their pernicious doctrine. If we gauge aright the temper of the .general body of workers, the strikers will be forced ,to fight a lone-hand battle which can end only in their summary defeat.