Hokitika Guardian & Evening star WEDNESDAY. APRIL 25, 1017 RETURNING TO NORMAL.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 April 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening star WEDNESDAY. APRIL 25, 1017 RETURNING TO NORMAL.

The “ striko ” being off, matters are to return to normal. There will be mixed feelings about the terms of settlement, but the Government in doing wbat it conceived to be its ‘•duty,” took the lice of Je»f<t resistance. It is to be regretted that in a matter of so great importance, a matter of far greater interest to the publics weal than to the strikers who caused the sitnarioo, that the people were not at once informed of the scope and extent of the negotiations. The Government have seen fit to flaunt their own war regulations and under pressure to make them of non-effect. I'he action will be claimed, one can well understand, as a precedent for tha future, and the Government appear to be making the situation more difficult for themselves 1 . For instance, just at the present moment some newspapers are before the Court because under certain circumstances mention was made of the name of a Home liner contrary to the war regulations. Now what is the nature of that offence compared with that of the strikers and the “go slow” movement which has brought the Dominion to the presect deadlock in relation to its transport and industries ? It will be interesting to see how the newspapers in question whose policy throughout the war has been patriotism personified, act, and what the blind figure of Justice will do when she weighs the Home liner incident in her wobbly scales. This case indicates the thin ice the Government tread on when they tinker with their own regulations. War is war, and the country requires in such a time war regulations, which shall, like the laws of the Medes and the Persians, alter not at all. In returning to the normal the Government can be congratulated on the escape from the situation they were about to create by the strike railway time-table. Surely they could net have meant it —they must, as our Wellington correspondent suggests, have been bluffing. As far as this district is concerned we make bold to say they would have seriously tasted the loyalty of this community if they had put on so drastic a screw. To paralyse the industries of the district, and hold up transport as they suggested, without making a single effort to open the coal mines, was to pursue a course of the greatest possible stupidity having regard to the issues at stake. It seems as if the Dominion were drifting as a derelict Bhip wi;flout a firm hand at the helm. We repeat that war is war. and wbat this country wants and expects is firm leadership end a strong directing haDd which shall breok no interference from olass or party, but go on with a firm determination to see the war and al[ that pet tains to it, through io a victorious end. Here is Westland right alongside the coal mines, and the Government has not the courage to coll for men tn work there, and so keep the industries going and trade intercourse reap the reward which is to carry the country on. lustead they would meet oat a dose of stagnation which would test the confide nice of the people sadly. It was a poor line of policy to take, and it isgoed to bear this morning that the “3:1 ike" time-table is off. As to the bargaining of the Ministers

with the strikers, the results wbioh have followed this line of least resistance, will condone with many the humiliation of it all. It seems to be a victory for civil peace at a price, and not many will be too happy about it. Jasfc what the : ‘go-s!ow” policy has brought the country to is being made all too manifest, and if now we are to have a clean slate it is to be hoped there will be a new and certain beginning for the future. The “goslow” policy *must go absolutely, as must any other policy which will lead to the late condition of affairs. The striker in whatever walk of life must have no consideration in the futnro. The Government, if they wish to regain a fair measure of self-respect, nonet make it plain that they are going to d rect the affairs of the country with the one firm resolve of winning the war. Any obstacles which come in their way must be swept aside without delay. Public confidence, we must confess, has been rather shaken by the strike settlement disclosures, and to remedy that the Government must show forth in those true colors which will secure that observance of law and order which alone can account for good government and the British way of doing things.