AUSTRALASIA'S POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 164, 10 January 1912, Page 5

AUSTRALASIA'S POSITION.

MR. JELLICOE'-: VTEWS CONTROVERTED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Received 9, 10 pjn. London, January 9. Sir George Reid, Commonwealth High Commissioner, writing to the Standard, states that Mr. Jellicoe's attack on labor Is wholly unjustified, and quotes Mr. Fisher's statement in the House on October 26 on the Commonwealth's prosperity, which was a sufficient answer to Mr. Jellicoe's allegation that the conntry was on the brink of financial and industrial ruin. Sir Geo. Beid says that when political^.opposed to Labor he was compelled acknowledge the Labor Party's character, intelligence and public spirit; and adds that some people are so accustomed to see pie capitalist combine fight in their own interests that they are unable to recognise a similar development on the part of workers. Sir William Hall-Jones, High Commissioner for New Zealand, writing to the Standard, says New Zealand's exports •re greatest per head of any country. Also that arbitration legislation had caved hundreds of thousands of pounds in settling disputes. Much of the labor legislation had substantially improved the workers' conditions. No humane man would object to the factory law. New Zealand labor conditions were the best in the world. Lady Stout, in a letter, combats Mr. Jellicoe's statements, and taunts him with being a rejected political aspirant. Mr. Jellicoe stated that after revisiting New Zealand he found all his political views falsified by the working of I socialistic reforms. Individual thrift and enterprise had been substantially annihilated, and New Zealand was almost on the brink of ruin. The Arbitration Acts were spurious, and had resulted in the creation of a host of well-paid officials, who lived by harassing trade and industry. A similar mad socialistic wave had, added Mr. Jellicoe, overtaken Australia.