TIMBER WORKERS' FEDERATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 240, 4 July 1919, Page 8

TIMBER WORKERS' FEDERATION

AND A LABOUB GOVERNMENT. Sir,—A few months ago you were good enough to afford me, as one possessing au intimate knowledge- of Queensland political - matters, some space in y° u * paper to criticise adversely a long ana boastful eulogy of the Government of ,tmit State by Mr. ltamlolph Bedford, one oi tho Legislative Councillors and Labour journalist. 1 am reminded of tins oy something that occurred in connection with a deputation that, a few days ago, waited on Sir James Allen and two ot ha colleagues with certain proposals from the Timber Workers' Federation. in dealing with Socialism and tho cost ol Jiviii", Sir James Allen naturally expressed surnriso at Queensland being cited as an example to bo followed m tho wav of improving living.conditions, i>ml had no difficulty in showing that ia this respect Queensland was not only infinitely worso off than New Zealand, but figured most disadvantageously in com. parison with the other Australian Stales. One of the deputation-Mr, l^""^" 1 that this was party owing to the ioU that Queensland had been hampered by strikes in recent years. Truly, rom such a source, a remarkable admission of tho evil effects of strike W fe£j James Allen very pertinently inquired why strikes should exist with a Labour Government in power, Mr. Hiram Hunter interjected: "They can t nltei the conditions in a year or two. Now, tneso

men either spoke in ifjnqrance or «> sorted ta the characteristic method of Ciuling a way of escape from an awkward situation. The fact is that the Queensland Government, in addition to being distinctly unpatriotic and devoid of all regard for honourable obligation, without which constitutional government becomes a mockery, has, despite experiments of various kinds, failed to improve tho conditions of the masses. It has not only had a "year or two" to bring nbout the Socialists' millennium, but is now facing the termination, by effluxion of time, of the second Parliament dominated by a Labour majority, and tho result is tho position plainly depicted by Sir James A'!len. Surely an object-lesson for New Zealand with a general election iu view!—l am, etc., A. MACINTOSH. Wellington, July 3.