The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, November 25, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1176, 25 November 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday, November 25, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Somk time ago an agitation was set afoot by Beach residents for the erection of a pier at the heads and the procuring of life saving apparatus. This move was the outcome of the disastrous drowning fatality at the locality about two years ago, when it will be remembered several lives were lost in an attempt to reach a launch in a flat bottomed boat. It is argued that had a pier been erected, the launch in question would have been alongside and all danger to those going aboard averted. The same risks ate still being taken to reach the launches which cannot moor in shall, vv water. The committee, which have the matter in hand, have been promised a donation of from the Harbour Board towards the cost ol erection, the Railway Department have given the iron rails to be used as piles and it now remains for the general public to do its part by finding the sum required to complete the pier and to purchase and erect lifesaving apparatus. For this purpose the sum of about will be required and we feel sure that local residents will not be backward in their liberality. It is selfish to argue that the pier will only benefit those who are the fortunate possessors of launches — even if this were so we would not be justified in closing our hands for humanity’s sake. It is the duty of citizens to do all they can to popularise the local seaside resort and to make it the safest as well as the most attractive on the coast. The seaside resort is a valuable asset to Foxtbn and the erection of a pier by public subscription will induce the Harbour Board, at a later period, to add a tee to the structure. Hundreds of people would make periodical excursions to the seaside if better facilities were afforded for lauding passengers at the Heads. The present facilities are very primitive. The conmiltee, however, have practically accepted a lender for the erection of the much needed pier, and it only remains for the public to supplement the funds which have already been donated. To those who are not in a position to give much, an opportunity will be afforded such to purchase tickets for a concert to be held in the local Coronation Hall in aid of the funds next mouth. The thanks of the community are due to those gentlemen who have taken up the matter with such enthusiasm.

It is rumoured that had those responsible attempted to resume shipping at the local port with free labour or under such conditions as the local watersiders are said to have refused, that the Flaxmills Employees’ Union executive would have called out the flaxmill employees and that a force of four or five hundred men would have been summoned from Tokomaru to take possession of the waterside, and to have played up generally. Whether this threat was a piece of sheer bluff or not we are unable to say, but the fact remains that the Queen, which was supposed to have arrived here a week ago, has not yet put in an appearance, aud some people are laughing up their sleeves and saying things not very complimentary of the courage of those in authority. We have no hesitation in expressing the opinion that if such threat were made, those making it were reckoning without their host for support, aud the materialisation of their plans would have been on a par with Boss Young’s phantom army of ten to fifteen thousand, which this gallant was to lead on Wellington if the authorities dared to employ free labour to work shipping. We have no desire to stir up strife in the community—on the contrary, we honestly desire peace —but when it comes to grovelling on our waistcoats before a set of irresponsibles who demand by bluff the shutting up of the port to the detriment of local business aud the public convenience, then it is time to enter an emphatic protest. We prefer to think, however, that the authorities have some other reason for the non-arrival of shipping than the fear of the threat above mentioned.

Thk Palmerston Standard recently stated that a list was posted up outside the Flaxtnills Employees’ Union office in Palmerston headed “Scabs” and containing the names of those who bad volunteered their services as special constables in Wellington, to assist in upholding the law during the present strike. Such publicity does not meet with

the approval of the majority of flaxmill employees in this district and several have expressed their annoyance at such indiscretion. Further, there isgrowing discontent among a large section of the flaxmills employees at the manner in which the union executive is dragging ttum into the waterside strike. On the whole these men are loyal unionists, but they object to being used as tools in order to magnify the power of the Red Federation. The union executive could fulfil the threat to call the men out at the bidding of the Federation of Labour bosses, but such a step would result in disaster to the union for obvious reasons not unknown to the union’s paid officials. The utterances of some of the strike leaders about the flaxmills employees’ union is read with mingled feelings of amusement and annoyance by sober-minded flaxmill employees. It is admitted there is an extreme section of unionists in the Tokomaru district, but their fanaticism is not shared by the men in this district, who are gelling tired of being focussed into the limelight for the sake of giving moral support to a strike which they know can never be justified by the fat-salaried agitators to whom industrial uu rest is as their life’s blood and who fatten on the worker as a lick does on a sheep’s back.