The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1919 AN EXECRABLE EXAMPLE.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 March 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1919 AN EXECRABLE EXAMPLE.

(With wtiicn in rncorp«rat«(J Th® ! B>ibap® Port and W - alrvmi 1-j a Nswb)

The spirit ‘®f war and revolution appear to be 'abroad, endemic to no particular people or class. If a farmers’ meeting held at Dunedin last week is correctly reported this little pre-war peaceful country is threatened with rebellion from a .class that by precept eschews Bolshevism, but which by its actions shows that it is as ready to -rebel against, and flout the laws as the followers of Semple arc. It is apparent .that in whatever class of industry or commerce, whether it be Labour or Capital, greed has developed into a passion, and when the law in the best interests of the whole community seeks to do something that is calculated to limit the profits of someone or class, throats are made by the injured people that they will pledge themselves to Take action to l prevent the Government from carryj iiig out its regulations made under i legislative enactments. It was stated . the other day that ninety per cent of ! motor cars in Now Zealand wore own- ! cd by farmers and others who lived ! directly from the land, and yet some 1 farmers consider the industry in which j they arc engaged is placed at such a j pressing disadvantage by the recent embargo against the export of skins | and hides that they follow'in the foot- | steps of vScmplc. the sedition monger, j and threaten rebellion. Dunedin farj mors will take action to prevent the j Government- from carrying out any j such embargo, and they are urging farmers in other centres to join the contemplated rebellion. In one sentence they respectfully ask for a free j and open market and in the very next | sentence threaten action if their resj pcetful requests arc not granted. Who j ave the men who in such execrably ! bud form set an example and give | such encouragement to professed SoI cialists and all other sections of the j community to disregard the law, the ] Minister of Agriculture, and the Government Can they claim to bo better citizens, more law-abiding, than the Semples and Webbs and Hollands Are they not equally proclaiming ! that with the force of numbers they will respect no Taw that does not conform to their greed, a- grefltl that is inimical to the State? Do the handful i of Dune-dinitc apostles of greed presume to know and understand the present economic needs, troubles and turmoils with which the State has now to contend bettor than the Government does that they would take 'action to render the efforts of the Gov- | ernment futile? Is it not emblazoned across the heavens that sections of the j farming community and the Semples, | Webbs, and Hollands are the two sections of the community that have given | the Government more trouble than all others put together? Here is indeed food for thought on the avarice of hu- ; man nature. The two extremes in the i Dominion, that which is taking ■ greater profits than all others, and j that whose constant cry is going up [ for the means to live healthfully; j these two extremes threaten the Gov--1 ernment, one is the throat of despair, i the other is the menace of pure greed. The extraordinary feature is that those who are now threatening the Government are the men who have loaded the labouring classes in their struggle for living conditions with all the anathemas that were framable in their realm of high profits, luxury, and motor cars; who will say that the man who stated mankind was fast becoming dehumanised was wrong What an injury have these Dunedin farmers inflicted on farmers with more commonsensc and saner judgment; what a lever they have placed in the hands of Semples, Webbs, and Hoi-

\ lands. They who should have jdcmoiii j strated their fitness to rule, to be. i elected as' their country’s lawmakers

have placed themselves in a lower category than that occupied by the men they hold up their hands in horror against. They have gone a long way in demonstrating ihc truth of the Socialist claim to there being, only two classes in the community, the one that stands and strives for justice to all, and the other that would make for conditions that permit them to hoard up the produce of labour in the very midst of death from starvation. We k-now those Dunedin farmers represent only to a very small extent the views of the farming community generally, but at the forthcoming general elections can so-called Labour be accused of lawlessness where such examples are given by farmers and stock buyers? Socialists are already quoting the threat against the Government, and we shall be surprised if, at the general election, it does not prove to bo the mightiest weapon yet placed in Labuor’s hands wherewith to storm and gain possession of the country’s legislative machinery. At no time in history of the Empire was good Govermeut needed so urgently as at this very moment; the various Governments of the Empire , have been persuading and beseeching Labour to discreetly get Labour machinery in working order before pressing claims for higher wages and more leisure, and all the example that could be adduced should have been forthcoming from classes entirely Removed from want in any degree, but the very class that has the most to suffer from social and industrial revolution is vicing with the'Semples and Webbs in hamassing the yery Minister who is, notably, endeavouring to establish conditions in its best interests. These Dunedin men want a free and open market, ( but do their past actions show that they arc entitled to such a market, or that they can be trusted with'’ free and open markets. Government has found it essential in stemming revolution to limit their demands for wheat prices. After most exhaustive inquiry, discussion, and cvidencc-Haking it is found that wheat can bo produced at a good profit while still keeping the loaf of bread at a price within the reach of most people. This is indeed an age of parties within parties, and threatened power of force is peculiar to none. All men are becoming partisans; demos has assumed a hitherto unknow boldness, and a wave of dcmociracy of an advanced type is sweeping over New Zealand that threatens to overwhelm all other parties; it promises a policy of justice that it seeks to establish by constitutional moans,, but its leaders have not yet disclosed what the details of that policy are. If it is a policy that is going to rob our British families of their birthright and pass it over to German Sparticisls. Russian Bedsheviists and world-wide march! its, we may well fear for the future, tor such justice is that seen by the most dangerously diseased moral visions. It is on a level with the moral visions of those Dunedin farmers and stockbuyers who threaten the Government if it dares to interfere with their miserable profit-making, for the general benefit of the whole body politic. Whether the embargo on hides be rightly or wrongly instituted no words can adequately condemn the dangerous example that has been set to other and more numerically powerful partizans.