The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1912. CO-OPERATIVE WORKS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 125, 14 October 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1912. CO-OPERATIVE WORKS.

The cessation of work on the Napier end *>f the Napier-Gisborne railway has been made the subject of some fairly warm controversy in the House, and, incidentally, the co-operative works system has been called all sorts of bad names, ranging from Bill to Ambergris. The suggestion has been made that the workers on this branch of railways under construction have been released from their work by a pernicious Government in order that they may be available for labor during the harvesting season. This is one of those allegations that has nothing to support it except the inevitable suspicion that the Government is a squatter's Government. We do not see eye to eye with the party that is in power in all its works and proposals, but we certainly cannot subscribe to the suggestion that Mr, Massey and his colleagues have reached the stage at which they would deliberately assist their friends by sacrificing their political opponents. Politics have not yet reached this deplorable stage in New Zealand, and political friend or political foe has no right to aim such an allegation at the Prime Minister, who has always shown that, however perverted his judgment may be on some matters, he is prepared to honestly and conscientiously "play the game." It is almost an impertinence, of course, to suggest that he would do otherwise, but politics are polities, and it seems to be an inevitable association with the ''profession" that those who are "out" should throw mud at those who are "in," irrespective of the decent amenities of public life. As a matter of fact, we should judge that the works have been temporarily stopped partly because, they are not of vital importance to the Dominion at the moment, and partly because the calls on the public purse, which appears to be very thin at the moment, are so extravagant that the Ministry must make a pause and limit its expenditure to the lowest possible point consistent with the actual requirements of the country. It really seems as if there were other publie works in course of construction that are much more urgent than the completion of the Napier-Gisborne line. Both these terminuses have already open ac-

cess by rail and sea to the markets of the world, whilst there are other portions of the country that are simply aching for communication with the outer world. To give the Government its due, it must, in common honesty, cut its coat according to its cloth, and if its cloth is not sufficient for a tail coat and its accompanying fripperies it must be satisfled with a sac suit. As to whether the co-operative system is preferable to contracting, that is a matter for experts, and with the illustration of the Midland Railway contract before us the question becomes a singularly moot one. The men have the matter to a great extent in their own hands. They can be depended upon to play the game where their fellow-workers are concerned without any outside advice or assistance, for labor is notorious for hanging together. But it certainly seems as if a system under which railway or road works could be undertaken by small contracts, in which the men could be free to select their gangs, with close supervision by competent officials, would be preferable v to either the present system or to the letting of expensive contracts, which the contractors find it difficult to complete. In the meantime, in the state of the public finance and the tightness of the money market, the Govvernment, however unwilling it may be to restrict operations, is wise in curtailing its expenditure in whatever legitimate direction it can. We hold no brief for Mr. Massey, but we cannot gee that his decision in this particular case is anything but a wiss and proper one.