SHELVING RESPONSIBILITY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 250, 13 June 1932, Page 4

SHELVING RESPONSIBILITY

Faced with a situation which has all the potentialities of one of the gravest industrial deadlocks in the history of this Dominion, the Government, through its newly appointed Minister of Mines, Hon. G. E. Macmillan, has announced that it "has no intention, at the moment, of interfering in the coal strike" and that it "perceives no reason why the Government should he drawn iu, unless hoth parties are particularly anxious for the interfereuce of tho State." This "laissez faire" attitude, in view of the threatening situation and its disastrous possibilities to the Dominion in its present position, is entirely indefensible. Although there is no indication of thc strike relaxing, the owners and the mon have so far not adopted • a belligerent attitude, and there have been suggestions from both sides, that a conference would pave the way to a settlement of the dispute. Yet in the faee of this position, the Government is apparently j so unconscious of the threatening potentialities that it has selected a comfortable position on the rail with every intention of remaining there until it is foreibly dislodged. The people of this country fully appreeiate the magnitude of the problems with which the Government is faced, but the magnitude of these prohlems, both of its own and other's making, does not entitle the Government to shelve its obvious responsibilities. Y/ithin two days, re- ' sponsible Cabinet Ministers have had | brought before them two nrgent and i pressing matters for their attention and in each case they have, to all pracI tical purposes, described that gymj nastic feat, aptly described in the j vernacular, as "Crayfishing." In other j words, tliey have been prolix in promises, hut remarkahly deficient in | anything else. As we have already : pointed out, the representative depu- | tation which urged upon Mossrs ForI hes, Coates and Ransom, the urgent necessity for meeting the prohlem of youth unemployment, was met with a figurative shrug of the shoulders , and spreading of the hands. And now ; comes the Minister of Mines disclaim- ; ing any obligation upon the Govern- ! ment to endeavour to settle an in1 dustrial dispute Avhicli, unless somej thing is done to meet it, may very ! conceivably paralyse the whole resources of the country. If the strike j persists, as under the existing conditions, it shows every prospect of doing, New Zealand must inevitably he faced with the necessity for importing coal supplies from abroad. As soon as this position is reached, there is a very gravs possibility of the seamen refusing the shipments and 3*oining- the miners in their direct action tactics. With this, there are the attendant possibilities of sympathetie strikes, in the country itself, a possibility which has not been rendered any more remote hy the Government's uncompromising attitude in regard to wages reductions and the prevailing discontent in the civil serviee. The Government should be the first, not the last, to recognise its responsibility in this matter. Instead of refusing to interfere, it should, from the beginnng have striven to act as mediator and bring the parties together. If it failed, it would at least have had the virtue of attempting something. Although coloured hy a decided bias towards the men's point of view, the Leader of the Lahour Party, Mr. II. E. Holland, has at least given the Government a lead in urging that all possible steps towards a settlement should be taken. Tbe disastrous consequences of a considerable strike in the present condition of the country, do not hear contemplation, and the people as a whole will justifiably hold the Government to account if its rail-sitting precipitates the trouble.