The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1892. European Affairs

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 93, 4 February 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1892. European Affairs

It would appear that notwithstanding the efforts made by those who are desirous of preserving law and order, by making concessions to the laboring classes in Europe, their labors have been so far abortive. We are informed that the Durham miners, who number one hundred thousand, threaten to "go out on strike " rather than make a concession to the mine owners, and accept a reduction of wages. In another part of England thirty thousand engineers are on the eve of striking, eight thousand of their number having already done so. In Spain the miners of Bilbao, last Saturday, were parading the streets with lethal weapons in their hands, the natural outcome of this was that they came into collision with the guardians of the peace, and several conflicts occurred. These are not like the outbreaks in England where a scuffle generally ends with a few broken heads at the worst, but instead are nearly always accompanied by bloodshed and much loss of life. A spirit of determined antagonism has been excited among the mine owners who have positively declined to submit to mob rule. In Russia things are even worse. It is said the Czar intends to restore the system of serfdom in certain districts and should it prove successful, to extend it to the whole of the Russian Empire. This means that the peasantry are to be again enslaved, and bound to the soil asthey were up to a few years after the Crimean War. A memorial against this has been issued by the Zemstvos, the district and provincial assemblies composed of representatives elected by the peasantry and other landed proprietors, which predicts that unless the Government changes its attitude the Empire will become bankrupt, presumably because the people will be unable to pay the taxes, or, as an ' alternative, will be desmembered by a popular rising svhich will deluge the country with the blood of the inhabitants. The Zemstvos, which were introduced in 1864, have not been extended to Poland, Siberia, Turkistan or the Caucasus. The object of the Czar is to trample out Socialism in Russia, but it appears to us that he is about to adopt the very means to encourage its growth. It has been an established fact for some time that there exists a direct connection between the existing labor troubles and the extension of socialism in the world, and that the advocates of the latter have spared no means to promote friction between employers and employed to further their own ends. That this evil can be checked, if not eradicated, we believe and hope, but we are convinced that will never be done by violence, or legislation the outcome of terror. Firmness on the part of those who have the administration of the law, and further mutual concessions on the part of the employers and employed, will go far to establish a better state of things. [Since the above was in type we have received cablegrams which show that the employers had practically nothing to do with causing the strike ot the engineers, the dispute was among the employed.]

We notice, with considerable regret, that on Saturday, the 13th instant, the Napier News will cease publication. Our politics are different from those of the moribund journal, but we sympathise with the proprietors, who have made a gallant struggle for existence, but who have to succumb to dire necessity.