The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1920. THE SHAMEFUL COAL CRUELTY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3569, 3 September 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1920. THE SHAMEFUL COAL CRUELTY.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

There are 'not many .centres of population in this Dominion where ! the coal shortage is so severely felt as it is in Wellington; therefore there will be many in that city to gratefully welcome the settlement of coal difficulties between miners and •owners foreshadowed by Conciliation president Halley. Pew even in remote country districts, can realise. the privation and down-right cruelty that has "been inflicted upon large numbers of people who should bo the first care of the State, the community and the and yet it is no persons’ business to do anything to relieve the heart-burnings in such sickness-stricken homes. We know of one instance, at'first hand, of many that have obtained, and still exist, ? in the Dominion’s seat of Government, that should he regarded as a scandal not possible in homes around Parliament houses, while, even , Members are assembled for the purpose of humanely, successfully and justly conducting the business affairs of the country. Members of Parliament have been elected as such to eliminate want, pain, suffering, privation of every kind and yet the coal difficulty is allowed to become so severe, so extreme that for days a fire is not attainable in a house in which lie two suffering from influenza, another that has since been taken to a hospital, and one that has only recently undergone a very serious operation and is still confined to bed. People so afflicted are desperately concerned about the primal cause of the extreme disability that is ffirced upon them ? and in probing the subject to the utmost they can go they find that it is all owing to mine-owners striving for higher profits and labour ror 1 higher wages. It does not appear reasonable that the first care of trie ’ State, the community ancT the individual should be allowed to lie on beds i of sickness for days ’without a hot 1 meal, except for hot water that was 1 available so long only as gas was ob- ■ tainable through coal reaching fhe i gasworks. But of such is the level

| our boasted civilisation has'sunk to | People may lie prone on beds of §ick;. ness —four in one private home—without hot food } minus hot water for the multiplicity of purposes it is for in sickness, while rich mine-owncrg quarrel over conditions on which they will allow coal to be taken, from their privately owned mines. The case instanced is not at all exaggerated, and we do' not suppose for one minute that it is the only case that could be found in the city of New Zealand which is the seat of Government. The probability is there are hundreds of similar cases, but no one seems to care and so callous has deprivation upon deprivation made people that it is nobody *s business to see that relief is taken to such stiffeners, In most cases The people afflicted are not of the class that make the most fuss and squeal loudest about their troubles, but that j is all the more reason why the auth- j orities, from Parliament down, should leave nothing undone.in making certain that those who lie on beds of sickness should not be made to suffer most as a. result of the prevalent practice of extortion and exploitation in the profit-making orgy which is current. It is not understandable why 1 local bodies and health officers seem to care less for the .rights and necessities of those who cannot help themselves than that coal-owners and miners may continue their squabbling for profits and wages while necessitous, afflicted people’s sufferings are being added to and made more unbearable. .But such is the condition an ultra-commer-cialism has inflicted upon the community. Soulless corporations, trusts and combines have replaced the oldtime sympathetic trader, financier and businessman and the masses of f the people are the poorer thereby. Is it consideration fob such cases we have instanced that is causing coalowners and miners to adjust; their differences? We do not think so. There is a project afloat for rapidly bringinglarge areas of surface miuable coal into the market, coal that can be worked 'at a saving of some eighty per cent in cost, and there are indications that this fact is having more to do with the settlement of the coal problem than any formal conciliation, or of conferring between the “greeks” on either side. It is truly astounding that the State should permit for one hour longer than necessary any coal shortage, in this Dorn- . for any purpose; why cessation of coal import from Australia should create a “tin-plate” panic in Parliament, while hundreds of millions of tons of good quality coal He on the surface, Within easy distance of rail and harbour ; virtually waiting for carts and trucks to be backed up against it ? permitting it to fall therein, to be transported to where it would confer blessings and comforts incalculable, besides employing ships in a purely Dominion industry that are now carting coal from Newcastle. It does seem reasonable to expect that while Nationalised lighting, heating and power producing electricity is being- got in working State coal-mines should be made to fill the purpose for which the coal remained the property of the State, even though private coal-mines will not work their coal at a profit people can afford to pay for it. The public arc not allowed to know all ‘there is to be known, about coal, therefore it is not possible to definitely state ‘hat one party i£ more, guilty than the other; one class in the community lays the blame upon the miners, another class upon the but in stating that both are guilty of a very serious breach of the laws of humanity one cannot go far astray, nor lay blame upon innocent shoulders.