The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, June 27, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1063, 29 June 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, June 27, 1912. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Is it to be wondered at that intelligent working men in this country are disgusted with the tactics and utterances of those prominent in the anarchial Federation of Eabour movement ? Here is another sample of inflammatory declamation by a Mr King, of the Independent Workers ol the World organisation, and a member of the Federation of Labour, which he delivered to the miners at Waihi the other night. Mr King's address, though ostensibly dealing with the contract system, threw sidelights on the methods adopted by the lAV.W. in connection with industrial disputes. He condemned the contract system as being solely in the interests of capitalists, and exhorted the men to insist on day wages. He explained the 1.1. W’s. tactics of “striking on the job,’’ and gave illustrations showing how drilling machines could be put out of commission in a very short space of time. “The Reelton miners,” he said, “should not have left the mines if they had adopted the I.W.W’s. tactics. All the poppers in New Zealand could have been put out of business in three or four days. Get on day wages as quick as you can. The less you work the longer you will live. Don’t study the boss, but take as many fifteen minutes as you can. ii the worst comes to the worst you can go to the beach and live on pipis and fish. Let the capitalist go to blazes, and look alter yourselves. Hit him in such a way that he cannot hit back.” These are the sentiments ol the men whom the Flaxmills Employees’ Union and the local wharf labourers are expected to follow. The sooner this red Federation, which stands for anarchy in the widest sense of the term, is crushed, the better it will be lor every class of worker throughout the Dominion.

On Wednesday last, in London, Queen Alexandra celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of her landing in England. Ten thousand ladies, including many leaders of society and Australians, sold in the streets of London ten million artificial wild roses, Queen Alexandria s favourite flower, made by cripples, for the benefit of the hospitals. Queen Alexandra, in an open carriage, made a general tour of London, and was given an enthusiastic welcome in tbe crowded streets. The keynote of her life is her womanliness. Ever since

on that grey March morning in the early ’sixties she arrived at Gravesend a shy, tremulous girl of nineteen, dressed simply in white poplin and muffled in a large white shawl, ever since a few days later, in sumptuous robes, “like a tall garden lily, splendid for the day,” she became the wife of King Edward, she has represented something apart from and outside the rough and tumble of daily lile, something gracious aud refined. Her energies have been devoted to the amelioration of poverty, to the succouring of the needy sick, to the cure of the maimed. Because much ot that work has been done without osteutaliou, comparatively little is known of the part the (^ueeu- Mother has played in it. Somewhere in one of the royal palaces is a big room stored with the strangest “royal collection’’ the world has ever seen. It is made up of tiny baskets, little ornamental boxes, wreaths of artificial flowers, piu-cushions-—a thousand aud one tiny tokens of love —made by feeble women who worship her, wrought by the lingers ot cripples, sewn by the dying poor, who have in their hearts cauouised “the dear and have sent their work —sometimes the very last of their hands —as mute offerings to the shrine of her grace.

Tuk policy of the McKenzie Government, as outlined in the Governor’s speech, delivered at the opening of the second session of the present Parliament on Thursday aiteruoou includes the following points. Railways.—Tight: lines to act as feeders to main lines. Improved suburban services. Children up to the age of five years to travel free and at quarter rates from five to fourteen years. Administration ot the Railway Department to be reorganised and an expert to a modern railway management to be favoured as a general manager. Laud. —Proposals to prevent aggregation, increase in the graduated tax on large holdings. Facilities to enable the “ small man ” to go on the laud. Compulsory resumption of estates. Trafficking in Crown lands to be checked. Defence. —Military detention in a camp or barracks instead of imprisonment in failure or refusal to parade, junior cadets to be demilitarised. Agriculture. —Establishment of colleges and additional experimental farms. More stud dairy stock from abroad. Old age pensions for women at sixty years. Tariff to be revised to lower the cost of certain articles in common use. Differentiation between earned and unearned incomes for taxation purposes. Fncouragement of fruitgrowing. Amendment ot the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Education Act to be amended to bring higher education within easier reach of deserving persons and medical inspection of school children. Further legislation against trusts and combines. Reciprocal treaty with Australia. Improvement of the hospital system. Rest houses lor temporary mental observation. Trained nurses lor wives and lamihes of workers and for out districts. Maternity hospital lor Palmerston. The speech is one of the most elaborate yet submitted and contains many important measures based ou principles which politicians of all shades of opinion are agreed upon and which the people demand- But there is no hope for the present party, which owes its existence to pledge breakers, who will again break away when it suits tneir whim, carrying these measures ou to the statute books. The party which is going to accomplish this must present an unbroken front and not be in the humiliating position of buying support. The time is opportune for a coalition and failing this an appeal should be made to the country. The leader ot the Opposition has given notice to move an amendment to the address and a stormy period Is ahead. It is almost a certainty that the McKenzie ministry will be deleated.