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Gisborne Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1371, 4 February 1905, Page 1

Tho strilto of the Newcastle whoelers and engiDemen serves to show us pretty plainly what we may oxpeot if harder times come along, making it imperative for the Arbitration Court to decree lower rates of pay. You noed not expect tbe man to be as patient and submissive as the master. Ho will not content himself with squealing. There is alawya the oldfashioned weapon of the strike.—Lance. Half a million sterling gambled away within ten days—on the totalisator in the holidays. Con even prosperous New Zealand afford it ?—Cartorton Leader. Another item of thrilliDg interest in a West Coast telegram iB tho announcement that “ the Government intended to ask Parliament noxt session for a speoial grant to carry telephones to the back blocks.” It is not tbe carrying of telephones but tho carrying of goods that constitutes the settlers’ real trouble, and to offer them the luxuries before the necessarios have been provided is rather like the missionary enterprise which would supply the benighted savages with a tall hat or a pair of spectacles before other less ornamental but more essential articles are forthcoming.— Wellington Poßt. From New Zealand comes word that the local Political Labor Leagues are giving their candidates a free hand on tho liquor and fiscal questions. , Why not a froe band on everything exoept JBill’s dirtmoney and such* like mattors ? There is an inherent logical absurdity in this free hand business. A political party aspiring to homogeneity professing to be organised as a united body for the good of tho country, cannot consistently give its units a free hand on any of the really vital political problems of tbe day.—Bulletin, Tbe opal is the only gem which cannot be successfully imitated, as its delicate tints defy reproduction.