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Hokitika Guardian, 13 July 1931, Page 4

Apropos of what is said in the foregoing it is not without interest to apply the reasoning to the situation in the Buller district where “the few” seek to control “the freedom of the many.” In other words, organised labour is attempting to do something which it cannot achieve. It wants to balance the coal industry always in the favour of its organisation, while outside that close organisation it . has created, stands the general body of the public for whom there is no thought at all, or if there is concern. it is only the desire to walk rough shod over the people and retain to themselves the .rights denied to others. This kind of corporation is akin to Russian methods, and it is well that there is at the head of the affairs of the country a man of the Calibre of i\i,r Forbes, with acumen enough to discern the menace betimes, and the courage to go ahead and grapple .with it in the service of the public as a whole. The position to-day were a Labour Government in power and Mr Holland. Prime Minister, can well be understood. The people should note the contingency of giving organised Labour too much political power, otherwise ownership of private property would be in peril, and we would be on the 1 high road to Russianising New Zealand. That is the plain situation revealed by the Buller industrial episode. As it is, the miners as an organised class propose a boycott on reputable business people who are

assisting to develop the country by forwarding its industry. If the people for whom Mr Holland is pleading and desiring to lead to victory were successful, the last bulwark in the defence of private ownership would be gone, because public security under constitutional rights would be lost. It is well perhaps that this cri is lias arisen. It is 1 nfortunate for Westport and district that it is the centre- of this industrial storm, but it is well that it is confined to a circumscribed area. There will be less affected than in a larger populated centre, and that is some satisfaction, but even were more concerned it is well that Mr Forbes has accepted the challenge given by militant Labour and. is prepared to wait and see the issue- through pa-tieni

till a true sense of the position comes to the minds* of those so greatly at fault.