THE COAL'SHORTAGE AND LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 244, 9 July 1919, Page 8

THE COAL'SHORTAGE AND LABOUR

gir,—iVow that all our industries are rapidly coming .to a standstill, owing to wimt of coal, ami the "go slow nohey of sections <>f labour, it behoves all .sane men to wake, up and face the facts ero it is too late. Before another two .months have passed 1 feel sure this country will be in the throes of an uphenval that will cause utter stagnation. To my mind this shortage of coal ami the near approach^ , the dairying, season is not a coincidence, but a carefully laid scheme to wreak revenge on the farmers for thwarting their pUuis in 19U. Should these views prove correct it \vi 1 emphasise the rank folly of a nation iil- ■ lowing agitators of a stamp that have come to these shores in recent years, to sav "Hither tliou shnlt go and no iarther" Unfortunately to-day wo- are leavened by a goodly number of renegade British and'aliens of a. low type, oipnised and led by professional agitators, who, with nothing of their own.to lose, nro ever ready to loot legitimate enterprise. Since the war began many mllammatory and traitorous speeches have been made in New Zealand, and tho fact that such men are still at liberty speaks little for our common sense. . Labour should wralo about its high ideals, but what of its actions? To-day, in mid-winter, there is hardy a home from Iteinga to the Bluff with sullieient coal to warm the aged, sick, and infants, and should a recrudescence ot tne i)la°uo eventuate there will be mourning in the. land. A fair day's work .for a fair day's wage is never again lie our watch-wonl; the very bnj» aie imbued with the I.W.W. tactics. Men to-day who say they cannn li o on four or 'five pmmds fl week will, in the near future, be looking for coiisiclerablv less. O»ce Capital and ].«ibmir hnve'foHifht their differences to a finish, mc;i who stand for law and order will have to band together for mutual pro-, led ion and sw to it that '/ston-work nicclings and "go-slow" policies have no nlacp in nu'r industrial life; otherwise tho Empire will have tobogganed down the self-same road as TCome and other effete nations Mggj^ftfc^