The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which, is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, MAY 28th., 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which, is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” SATURDAY, MAY 28th., 1921.

TH E WEE K. I mo cm dial expressions of intcrm.’iomil feeling expressed at the J’ilgrims Club gathering reported hy cable this week, whereat .Mr bloyd tieorge, on behalf of lirituilt, and Colonel Harvey, on behalf of the United States, spo'te in terms of such close appreciation, naturally has attracted a good deal of attention. There are those in America who profess to believe the “situation is embarrassing to the President, but .knowing Colonel Harvey to be the strong man politically that he is, his power and influence over public opinion will soon discount any temporary embarrassment, should that have a isen. It was of course, not what was .vtid, but the spirit in which it was said, which counts, and there is little doubt, that discounted or not, good seed has been sown by the ready avowal from the leading men on both sitles >f the Atlantic, that they are prepared as nations to stand together for the world’s peace. At the very most that Is the objective, and can there in ceality be any sound oposition to aiming at such a goal? With Anglo-American 'ntorcsts firmly allied, many things ire possible and 'chief of all a European peace, which is the greatest need of all at the moment for the world’s peace and contentment. In the press strictures passed in America on Colonel Harvey s speech, the most that seems to he said is that if his remarks had been known in advance “certain passages would have been toned down.* 3 This is a very trivial opposition for it believes in what Colonel Harvey said, but would liked to have had it said in a nun"? diplomatic way. Colonel Hnrv*y is newly in harness, and though Ins address lacked diplomatic polish, he .-md the right thing, if not in the right way. certainly at the .right time.

Ttttc great coal strike at Home promise* to peter out now. Workmen are returning to work, and this section break will have Its effect all over the country Tt is clear that the Unions responsible for the strike are in a sad way, finnn cinllv, and it can be well understood that the members must be having a deplorable Ame. Tt i« of eourse, mother pelpnhT? illustration of the mrcnnovm.>

methods of striking. Under certain conditions it is possible to eon re i\ e a strike may have some leverage, but in this instance when the wreckage of a great nation A 1 industry is u mind and the destruction of the whole industrial life of the greatest country in the work is at stake, the madness of (he act should be self-evident, U ilfortiinatel v it was not, and the unions hurried to their doom dragging down ;he country, losing millions oT trade, bringing ruin and misery to millions of their follow men, and destroying millions of money invested in works and industries for the national welfare. The situation was rather well put in the cable news the other day, and indicated a very sane view on the industrial outlook, as affesting the workmen. Mr George Roberts, a member of the House of Commons, addressing the Industrial League 'Council, said the coal strike was protracted, not because of the righteousness of the cause, but owing to the cowardice of the leaders, who were afraid to tell the rank and file that the country could not maintain an industry which could not maintain itself. Every trade union in the country was bankrupt; and its membership decreasing. Trade unions would cease to he a force. This was brought about by

people within the ranks of unions pursuing a spurious international ideal. So it will he seen the same thing was happening at Home as abroad bad leadership. When will the great hulk of sane labor exercise its right along the lines it should—the sound constitutional way?

.Mr J. A. Prostick in an address to . the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce I the other evening, expressed bis views j 1 t j on the financial position as it a fleets the workers. lie said: —"Home people tell . us that the crisis is owing to the low pi ice of wool. The wool Situation is a very serious one for the producers and also for the country, but the total value of 'the export of wool at the high prices ruding in 1918 was seven and a half millions. Supposing that wool was oi no value this year, seven and a half millions would nDt have upset our ■ national finance. The root cause of our trouble is the craze which set in after lht> armistice for foreign made goods Forty millions sterling in value were imported more than the country needed. The money is not here to pay for .the goods without serious financial disturbance. Too many •hoots--result, hundreds of men and women .skilled in the production of these goods are now unemployed and the industry is earning nothing for itself or for the country. The same remarks apply to clothing. Importations of clothing are huge, n good deal of it of very doubtful quality. Again, the result is that hundreds of people in the Dominion suddenly find their’wages stopped, which means that their power to purchase fhe goods they need is gone.

The foregoing illustrations, he remarked applied to practically every class of goods. Even at this early stage, good respectable hard-working citizens ate pleading for the right to live. Although the position has not readied the acute stage, public-relief works are contemplated. Public money will have to be spent—not our money for the Prime Minister has to go hat in hand to the money-lenders of other countries. What a. picture for the individual riti/an to look at after years of unparalleled prosperity! What does it mean to him? Tt, may reduce him almost to pauperism ; it may absorb all his savings, or plunge him into debt and all because we ■bought foreign goods which we could have made for ourselves. The farmer >s intensely interested, because the monev which would have been available for development work is now locked up in bonded stores. I am conscious that on many public questions either cite working man or the farmer is frequently used to dmiwmstrate some point or other; but I am quite satisfied that, when the economic side regarding New Zealand manufacture is properly understood, the primary producer will recognise that the home market is the best one, and that the feeding of tin* natiou is his particular care. If the principle to which I have already referred, in adopted that every producer is entitled to interest on his capital, to receive and to pay good wages, a trading profit and a proper margin for contingencies—then the farmer, above all others will no longer lie worried by the vagaries of the foreign market at least, so far as home consumption is concerned. The only risk that he will take is in regard to the surplus which the nation is unable to absorb, and this will gradually right itself under protection of the industries, which will create a large additional population of food consumers.

Turning to methods calculated to evolve a genuine social peace, Mr Frostiek made some general remarks well applicable to the occasion. He said that there could he no real social peace and order until every class of citizen gave more attention to its respective duties and responsibilities and less attention to socalled rights. They urgently needed in their national life to cultivate more of the family spirit, where the material welfare of each member was manifested under the sympathetic guidance of the head of thp family, with the result fliaf the welfare Of the group

stood before the interest of any one member. That principle permitted the widest expansion—to the workshop, with tho employer as the head; the city with the council as tho head; the country with the Government as a head; and the Empire with the King as the representative head. If the family spirit was not destroyed by evil influence of greed and selfishness, they would soon attain a. higher degree of social wclfar c and he could not think how any fair-minded man would desire it to be otherwise. Employers and workers alike should strive to create more than they could consume, for therein lay the source of national progress. To leave this world better for the life they had lived should be the aim of every man and woman. Their duty was to add something to the I building of the nation, something that would remain after they had “gone ■ West.” All that was asked was to apply the family principle to their own country first; no other country had so great a claim upon them, and no matter to what extent they might follow j that line of duty, there would he many ! things they must have by exchange , with other countries. Widen the family idea and maintain the integrity of their own nation. "'They should not allow anything to happen in this country •on the lines of what had recently occurred in Free Trade England, where many of the mills were suddenly closed because German-made goods came into the English market at a price which was far below the English cost of production.

Tin-, annual meeting of the Hokitika (ins Company this week, brought to mind the longevity of the institution. The works are now withn three years of their golden jubilee, and we may take it that over that long term, a very useful career has been served. Use and familiarity often render 11s indifferent to our surroundings. The glorious Southern Alps about us are the delight of every casual visitor passing this way, but residents have grown so familiar with the scenic landscape, that they are indifferent to its glories and unmindful of its pleasant proximity. So with the every day use of the gas. Over the long term of years we have grown used to turning the taps and finding the illuminant at our service, and just take it as a matter of course. But we should miss it very much were it suddenly cut off_we often do miss it from our streets, and we feel the want of something to make “darkness visible!” The local institution has been doing good service over a long term and deserves appreciation accordingly. In its early years of usefulness it was a novelty, but it has grown into something of practical value now-n-days. Four times the quantity of gas is now being consumed locally as against the consumption in the works’ early inception. It has come to be appreciated in its necessary way has liecome indispensiblc. When fuel is growing more difficult to obtain, its use for power and culinary purposes have come more into demand, and these are two avenues in which it will continue to b e in increasing demand. It is good to find the works flourishing after all these years and at the moment, entering as it were on a new lease of life.