NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

Taihape Daily Times, 26 February 1919, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

SHIPPING SHORTAGE NEW ZEALAND GOODS HELD, UP IN AUSTRALIA. DUNEDIN, February 25 It is roughly estimated that at the present time there are about 20,000 tons of merchandise awaiting tranJshipment at Sydney and Melbourne tor New Zealand, for which importers were only able to get bills of lading to these two ports. A quantity of this cargo has been lying awaiting transhipment for the last three or four months, and a number of the vessels which brought the goods to Australia have not only sailed on a return voyage, but arrived at their destination. Among these may be mentioned. the sailers Kilmeny, Kensington, Combusdoon, Cardina, Mount (Stewart, and the steamer Carpentaria. On all these vessels goods storage charges are being incurred, and this must materially increase the selling price when they do reach their i destination. With a view to endeavouring to get matters facilitated, Mr ,H. C. Campbell has written to the Dunedin Chamber of Commerce suggesting that some fiction should be taken with the various chambers throughout New Zealand in approaching the Government to see whether it would not he possible for some of the vessels coming out from .Homo in ballast,’.via Suez, to load in fthe Dominion to call and pick up these gods awaiting transhipment, as at the present time it seems absolutely impossible for the usual intercolonial service to cope with the situation. V —'—

VOICE OF THE PRESS

NEWSPAPERS PROTEST AGAINST

BOLSHEVISM,

WELLINGTON, February 24,

At the annual conference’ of newspaper proprietors at Wellington yesterday it was resolved unanimously; ‘ 1 That this association in general meeting assembled having under its consideration the public utterances of Mr Robert Semple, M.P., on the anarchist principles of the Bolshevists and similar organisations, as reported in the Christchurch papers, considers it to be its duty to record its emphatic protest against the support by public men of doctrines so inimical to the people of New Zealand and to the welfare of the Empire. It is especially to be deplored that men who are representatives of the people in Parliament should so far forget the duty they owe to the saner section of their constituents, and by theft - unpatriotic utterances endeavour to create a spirit of disloyalty in a community which has shown its patriotism in a marked degree, and whose racihbcrs must resent the dissemination of the unworthy and dangerous doctrines referred to.”

“MENACE TO THE DOMINION.”

HON. EARNSHAW’S VIEWS,

CHRISTCHURCH, February 25

Reference to Mr Semple’s outburst was made by the Hon. W. Earnshaw, M.L.C., at Timaru. He said lie trusted that Mr Semple would be put out at the next election, as well as his associates, Messrs Holland and Fraser. Such men were a danger in the House and to the interests of the Dominion. , Mr Semple had stated at bis Christchurch meeting that if he were in Ireland he would be a Sein Pciner. The speaker thought that Mr Semple was ono already. Mr Fraser had said that "If we can bring about what the Bolsheviks have tried to bring about we will do so.” What did they try to bring 'about 1 ? When the Russian men would not face the foe the Russian women took up arms on behalf of their country, and everybody knew r how the Bolsheviks murdered these women who had tried to save their country from the invader. Mr Fraser, M.P., supported that kind of thing. Everyone had read in the newspapers last week the cable which told how the Bolsheviks were treating the w T omen of Russia by using them as mere chattels, abolishing the marriage laws and adopting free love. Did Mr Semple and his friends stand for that? Mr Semple said that if he were in Russia he would bo a B'olshevik. It was high time this country sent him there. (Hear hear.) Continuing, Mr Earnshaw said the time had come when Parliament would have to face the question, as to whether such men as Semple, Ffaser and Holland wore to be allowed to sit in Parliament. There were limits to free speech, and these men had overstepped the limit. Those w r ere the men who from the commencement of the war had never lifted a finger to assist this country to fight its fjjjeign foe. He had hoard Mr Semple declare that he -had been at the face of every mine, and had advised the miners to 'resist’ conscription. He had said. "They may shoot

me if they like, hut I will not go. ’ ’ These men were a menace to the Dominion. They were not a help to the working men of the country. They were living not by labour, but on labour. There was a big difference between living on and by labour. The sooner the working classes recognised this the better it would be for all concerned.