HOW TO SETTLE DISPUTES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3408, 12 February 1920, Page 3

HOW TO SETTLE DISPUTES.

COLONEL .\IITCHELL’S SUGGES. TION. Discussing the coal problem with a Post reporter, Colonel Mitchell, D. 5.0., M.P., said:——“l cannot belie\.«_.~. Ml. llzissey is properly reported ii. ‘saying there is no coal sl1o1":age, and not likely to be in the nezll"futu‘-fie. \Vith the cement works closed do\\'n_ tr-mus stopped perio<lic:lll_v for want. of power, talk of gem-eat} cul't.ainlnL‘-nt ir .-~ land, gas works companies being alarmed, and not :1 pound of coal for many liouseliolders for 11;();1r]1s——and this i 5 mi('.sulnnlel'——one can hardly believe Hint the Premier did nrake such a statement, and one may well t'.*el niixfoizs about the poor, e:<pee,ially the large families, for the winter. It ‘is time the Government. said *0 'nm,}l p:lrties:‘\\'e represent uhe consumer, 95 per cent of the people concerned in this business. and are going to_ln'3.ke you come together, and :xgl'ee to {isottlement 01‘ we will do it for you.’ It is about time ‘that we realised that flip whole community is 4uft'el'illg,lh:lt <;ur‘national efi‘ie.iellcy i‘ sllfl’ering. that we are ere'2Lting unemployment and ’\llS(:()ni2Cllf, aml the poor with large: tmizilies will suffer very grie\'ollslyl unless 11:“ coal. which God lias. sup—l plied us wi'?h i.n zihmitlénce, is fortht-i CC'x'.lll]g:. It is a. much bij._r;gel' thing] than a squabble between the coal owners and the union eontroller.s‘. Tlleyi are rnerely the stumbling blocks to unity. It‘ the Government will take the auto-eruteic C(ml—o\\‘ners’ executive and the same number of the more autoe:'al.ie. union controllers, with the‘ party to Samoa, and leave them on one of the islands for good. to settle‘ their difi"erenees.. the coal trouble| would be settled here in a day. It is| :1 national problem vitally Coneern-i ing eVer_y man and \\‘Ol1)211l in the Do—l miniou, and the Govc-I'nment. shoulull now step in on their behalf."