A THREATENED STRIKE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1929, Page 7

A THREATENED STRIKE

(Christchurch Times.) The threat of the Labour unions to call a general strike if the New South Wales Government persists in opening one of the idle coal mines of the 'State, should bring matters in Australia to a crisis. The obvious course for the Government is to accept the challenge and to put an end to an intolerable situation. Unfortunately, it is By no means certain that the Government is ready to face a trial of strength, and we may have another period of wearisome argument. It is an amazing fact that although Australia has had an unparalleled experience of strikes and labour disputes—or perhaps because of it— Governments" and employers never seem to bo prepared for a. struggle. If there is any country in the world where the organisation against militant. (unionism and against general strikes should he complete, it is Australia, but each fresh dispute finds the employers unprepared. Liven in waterfront and maritime troubles the importers and exporters and the shipping companies have to seek time in which to improvise the means of carrying on their trades and time and money are always lost. The coal trouble has been going cn for months and it has been obvious from the beginning, that an. attempt to work the mines with free labour would precipitate a crisis, but apparently no one in authority was prepared for a struggle, and even now, when the Government threatens to take a decisive step, it is by no means certain that its preparations and organisation are complete. And yet a definite test of strength would* appear to be the only possible way of finding a solution of the difficulty. The whole industrial situation in Australia is unsound. Hie country has been carrying on for years on borrowed money, arid only the magnitude of its loans has saved it from economic collapse at certain periods... At present it is suffering from general trade depression and the fall in the price of wool threatens an early complication. There could not be a more hopelessly wrong time for industrial troubles and the labour leaders who are talking strike are displaying a singular indifference to history, because there is no Irecorded instance of a strike succeeding on a falling market. It has long seemed to us as independent observers, that the Australians have been working towards a definite contest for the control of industry, and it may be that the time has now cotn<? for the great trial. With a Labour Government in offl :e at Canberra, the Labour leaders may judge that the moment is. opportune, ignoring the fact that economic conditions are not under Government control, and that the course of the struggle will be determined by factors too big to be grasped by any administration, either Federal or State. We in New Zealand are bound to be affected by any serious development in the Commonwealth, of course, and we shall therefore waten events with some anxiety, though industrial conditions in the Dominion itself are, happily, fairly settled.