The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1920. THE FREEZING INDUSTRY THREATENED.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3640, 29 November 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1920. THE FREEZING INDUSTRY THREATENED.

With which ia incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News,"

A resolution passed, at a large meeting of the Poverty Bay District Freezers’ Union again raises the question of the right of any section of the community, capital or labour, to paralyse the community’s means of existence; If this Dominion does not produce it earns nothing to subsist upon. It apparent that without exports administration wheels must stop turning; there can be no fund from which wages are drawn, hence there can be no work for people to. do except to hunt for something ‘to live upon as tnc brute does. There are too many leaders of factions in this Dominion of the Devil-may-care character; they invent and persist in some outrageously ridiculous Utopian scheme,, not caring how disastrously the whole bqdy'politic is affected, by it. The very fact, that this young country has actually arrived at the stage of importing more than it exports; at the spendthrift condition of spending more than if is earning, ought to be a solemn warning to the beggar as well as to the millionaire. What can happen to this young country if its people are so shortsighted, so foolish, as to lapse into ease, laziness and spsndthriftism. but failure to meet its liabilities, and inability to find food and clothing for its women and 'Children? It is beyond conception that the men—be they masters or workers—should be permitted by the State to force a coalition of poverty, starvation, and suffering j upon the people who should be surrounded with plenty. Are Poverty Bay 1 Freezing Works men following Up the 1 Insane dictum that "labour alone should have and spend the fruits of labour? Surely they arc not so revolutionary as to assume that they can at once commence to regard the men who own sheep and cattle and freezing works as something existing for them to prey upon? The general public will support Labour only so long as Labour has a reasonable case to present; instantly Labour is unreasonable and inconsistent it no longer has the general public on its side, and if Labour leaders have not yet realised this fact they had better take steps* to test it, and so, as soon as possible come to a sane understanding through getting the public into focus permitting a clear perspective. It is common street talk that freezing works men had. come to a decision to hold up the whole meat export industry by refusing to accept duty. Nobody of consequence believed such statements for it was so obvious that with wool prices down to an unprofitable level any effort to hang np freezing in attempting to administer a knock-out blow to sheepowners in the shape of a demand for still higher rates of pay, would render their position an impossible one. However, freezing works hands in one of the largest districts in the Dominion have disclosed their intention; "they will not accept engagement until employers agree to meet the federation.’’ The men who ‘adopted the resolution know full well that Ihe employers could not give a reply to such a resolution before Wednesday, December 3, which is tantamount to resolving that there is no intention to start wqrk, and there is*no doubt about this being the true aspect, the very nature of the resolution condemning it as 'being insincere. The outstanding fact is that someone is determined to attempt to ruin the country; wool is unprofitable to the grower, and now it is sought to prevent the country from putting on the market the only commodity (meat) whereby enough money can be made available for carrying on industry and administration; for paying wages; for meeting liabilities to British and other creditors. All this ought to be obvious to every householder, but it seems that disaster will threaten simply because so many will not think for themselves,. The position in a nutshell is: We can-

not have the money wherewith to live circulating in the State iff the people comprising the State do not earn it. We cannot help viewing with'* suspicion the action of the Gisborne shearers in j holding in abeyance their demands un- | til they became of a distinctly stand- | and-,d sliver character. It is reasonable and understandable that people generally should already be wondering what sort of government could be expected if such men had the direction of this country's destinies. Who is at the head of the Federation directing the attitude and behaviour of the Poverty Bay District Freezers' Union? Too much information regarding such extraordinary •happenings cannot be given to the general public, who have only the persistently voiced views of interested agitators to guide them. We cannot believe the State will stand by while the meat industry of the Dominion is strangled by the adoption of such outrageously dishonest tactics. The men cannot lay claim to square-dealing in leaving their demands till virtually the time for starting killing; if they did make any mistake they sjhouhl have given the only evidence of it possible in going to work, and then, if no steps were taken by their employers, they might have some justification for carry- , ing a stop-work resolution into effect. What we do contend is that no section j or faction, whether it be of either ex- ! treme, has any tittle of right to drag down the whole of the masses of the people into a state of revolution. That [some professedly*Labour men. are attempting to ape what is being done in some other countries there is no doubt. In Russia the efforts of that class of men have been successful, and if the general desire is for living conditions similar to those in Russia, the 1 sooner the revolution comes, the better; but if New Zealanders are determined to remain free from the Russian vortex of massacre, desolation, destruction | and sanctioned murder, let them immediately resort to some rational arrangement to put. an end to attacks upon the Dominion's chief export industries. People are beginning to ask whether the whole community should not organise "against a nest of irresponsible? who would cripple all industry- Other peoples and nations more under the influence of the Bolsheviks within their borders have successfully stemmed the industry-wreckers, and in no country is Labour better remunerated; nowhere has the condition of Labour made so desirable an advance in the social status, and no country is more rapidly returning to that condition in which the spending power of the people is highest. It is certain that disaster only can result from such threats from workers as that made by the Poverty Bay freezers. i