Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8754, 2 March 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 1907. SECOND ED ITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

The contractors for the new Australian mail service appear to have bitten off rather more than they can chew. They successfully accomplished the easy task of tendering lower than any of the old established lines, but they find it a far more difficult matter to raise the large amount of capital required. It was to lie expected that other firms trading with Australia would endeavour to render the position of their intending competitors as unpleasant as possible, but wise men would have foreseen this probability and provided against it. The present situation appears to be that a representative of the contractors is visiting Australia with the hope of inducing the Federal Government to guarantee debentures to the large amount of one and a quarter millions. With the support of the credit of the Commonwealth tho venture would bo perfectly plain sailing for tho promoters, but tho proposal verges on the impudent, and can only hope to succeed if the Commonwealth is unwilling to come to terms with tho companies whose former tenders it rejected with scorn. The Labour party, as might be expected, puts down tho difficulty that has arisen to a capitalist ring, and suggests that rather than give a guarantee the State should embark on a nationalisation scheme and build its own line. It is apparently supposed that, although private firms find it impossible to arrange a a satisfactory service, the State could hope to run , the business at a profit. Perhaps, •

however, w§, should rather say that the Labour party cares nothing about profit or loss so long as their ideal of nationalisation of business enterprises is attained. It is only fair to add that Mr Deakin and everyone concerned has denied the truth of the assertion that a guarantee from the Federal Government is desired, but the chorus of denial is so emphatic as to lead to the belief that it is a mere formal statement that negotiations are not yet complete.

The Arbitration Court has been freed from .the necessity of imposing any penalty on the men who struck at the Petono freezing works by the discovery that the award was really void owing to the fact that the agreement was not filed within the time assigned by the Act. It is particularly annoying that an award which both parties regarded as binding until a week or two ago' should bo found to be invalid. Everyone was anxious to hear the opinion of the Arbitration Court on

the strike, and the - failure of the prosecution suggests the unpleasant reflection that possibly many of the other awards throughout the colony are not worth tho paper they are written on. Tho sudden disappearance of the Unions is one of the most interesting points in the situation, and wo suspect that it is not unconnected with the fact that the unions are liable to a fine of £IOO in case a strike occurs, In

Christchurch the fiction put forward is that owing to the resignation of the President, caused by a difference with one of the members, a quorum cannot be collected until a new election has taken place, arid therefore the Union as a body can make no reply to communications from the directors of the freezing companies. Wo should have preferred the unions to have bad the courage of their convictions and to have fought the question openly, but they seem to prefer the tactics adopted by the Boers in the late war, and disappear when danger threatens only to reappear in a now place.