WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

'THE WATER SI DE LOCK-OUT. THE EMPLOYERS’ INITIATIVE. (Our Special Correspondent! WELLINGTON, Feb. 25. The trouble on the water-front is presenting a phase of industrial strife with which the New Zealand public is not familiar. In this country it is the custom to describe every trial of strength between Capital and Labour, involving a cessation of work, as a strike. This is because in, nineteen cases out of twenty the workers take the initiative and place the employers on the defensive. But in the present case the positions are reversed. The men liava not declined to work', hut the shipowners have, refused to give them employment, unless they furnish guarantees to conform to certain conditions. This constitutes a. lock-outj differing from a, strike in the important particular that capital has the advantage and the responsibility of the. first blow. A lock-out usually marks the stage at which the employers will no longer tolerate the methods of the work ers and wish to enforce their own demands. THE “DIGGERS’.” APPEAL. The appeal addressed to the Wellington waterside workers by the returned soldiers engaged in fruit growing in the

Motueka district reflects the general misapprehension throughout the community as to the existing situation. “Don’t let the old Diggers down,” the owners of the fruit awaiting shipment telegraphed. “Play the game.” Of course the message gave the very alert secretary of the AVatersido Federation his opportunity. “AA 7 e are not letting the Diggers down,” he replied in effect. “Prepared to load your fruit on anj vessel required, but employers will not engage watersiders to handle your produce.” As a matter of fact the employ ers had anticipated the appeal woulc lie transferred to them and they engaged the labour required to load the apples without waiting for a direct request. SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

At the week-end meeting of the Do- j minion Executive of the Returned Soldiers’ Association some very sweeping i statements were made concerning the suitability of certain properties that ; had been acquired by the Government , for soldier settlement. One member of i the Executive declared that an estate o) some 10,(XX) acres, purchased at £8 an acre and loaded with the cost of sub-division and reading was proving not worth £4 an acre and was ruining the men who had taken it up. -Another described the quality of the land comprising another big estate as so poor that the grasshoppers on the plac-e >,vero committing suicide to save them- j selves from starvation. As a result ot these and others to the same effect a special committee with authority to cailor with financial and commercial experts was set up to inquire inly the position and prospects of the soldiers < n the land. THE MINISTER IN REPLY. Jn the course of an interview to-day the Hon 1). H. Guthrie, the Minister of Lands, said lie would he very glad to give the committee appointed by the Soldiers’ Association every possible lacility for investigating the results of the Government’s efforts to place returned men on the land. Ho claimed that in the vast majority of cases the men had been given an exceptionally good opportunity to re-establish themselves in civilian life and wore tinning it to excellent account. Some, of course, had not done so well as others, and a few haul failed, as was inevitable in such undertakings. But the Government’s purpose was to make the way of the soldier on the land as smooth as it could he made with justice to the rest of the community and he certainly would not he allowed to suffer for the Government’s mistakes—if there had been mistakes.