The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1916. A SORRY SPECTACLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1916. A SORRY SPECTACLE.

Thanks to the machination? and operations of the I.W.W. and other extremists, Australia is cutting a sorry figure at piesent, the most critical period in the history of the British Empire. It has declared agninst providing adequate sup ■ port for the troops that have mide History at Gallipoli and in France, and the

miners arc holding up the industries of tlit eouuU'y. those required toy iis 'lefi'ii.'c. Tlit- piuist of the strike f«w'.)iar to most. Briefly th« position the iiu".i insist, that tiley should 'rot. be required tu work imirc tliiin eight hours from "bank to-bank." Their intupretatioa or' "bitn!;-to-ba:ik" ■ill time spent underground. A lu'i'.ir is deemed to be below ground and i>i tlit service of the owner of the mini from the time lie commences to desceii'l the mine until he returns to the surface. What is most extraordinary about t.lie vhole business is that Mr. Holman, tiie Premier of Xew South Wales, declaims that the privilege of an eight-hour ban!; to-bank day obtains under the existing law. This statement Ims been emphatically denied by the strike officials, who ('.(olare that a clause in the recent law 011 the subject nullifies the cardinal features of the measure. It is suggested on holialf of the employers that the workere arj really aiming at legislation which will restrict the hours of worn in mines to not more than six and a hall' pc: day, from Monday to Friday, inclusive, and that only four hours shall bo worked i>n one Saturday and no work dene at all on the next Saturday. Wlr.'.; is more, at a recent conference it was insisted by the strike official: that only one shift per day should be worked in any mine. Jn this regard the representatives of the men point-blank refused to consider whether more eoai than could be raised under the one-shift principle was required cr not by the public for gaa, steam and household purposes Mr Holman went, so far a? to say Uiat, in his opinion, it was no use for him to endeavor to solve thr existing problem. He probably know s that the gang responsible for the strike are out to attack and injure capital, ho'vever tha rest of the community lr.iy suffer. Given the bank-to-bank principle, they will immediately demand further corccssions. On this point the chi..f executive officer for the strikers remarked lately that, despite the rights which the workers already enjoy, the cr.al- industry was still booming, and he challenged the minc-owjiers to prase that they could not stand further concessions. It will also be noted that at a meeting of miners in New South Wales one delegate declared that the miners were, really aiming at the ownership of the .mining industry. Before the Referendum was taken, the Labor extremists openly boasted that if t'.ie Referendum were carried they would hold up the industries of the country and prevent the troopships leaving. And as things arc shaping, it looks as if th?v would have carried this threat into execution. It is really very sad to think that in these fateful days men of, our owu race could be led by irresponsible and reckless agitators to do anything to injure the Great Cause. If they were heavily subsidised by the Kaiser's Government they could not more richly earn their money. ' How utterly hopeless aathe agitato, s can be judged from the following letter received by the secretary of the Victorian R.S.A., who had advertised for the name of a lady who had witnessed an assault on a returned soldier, who was assaulted in an inva'id chair at the Yarra Bank by anti-con-scription demonstrators. This disgusting and disloyal epistle read: "It's a . . . pity that the dirty rotten soldier in the chair wasn't killed. I hope the Germans will kill all the dirty Au;tialian rotters at the front. Rood luck to the Germans. We hope that tUi-y will win 'ihe war. To hell with B'l'.y Hughes and his dirty conscription crew. The dirty rotten . . Australian so!d : ers, let thcpi rot in the trenches. Voti 'No' on Saturday and . ..the Briti-.ii and lousy Australian soldiers—the skunks. . . . 'Success to Germany.

I.W.W. for ever," It is a great pity scum like the man responsible for the above could not be made to share the fate befalling those who are in the territory occupied by the gentle Germans. They are evidently incapable of recognising that Australia stßnds or falls by the result of the titanic struggle now being waged in various parts of Europe. In no other part of the world do people er.joy more privileges than in Australia, nowhere are the opportunities for the worker greater. But the workers, or the militant section of thcra, are mistaking license for liberty, and showing that the political power they enjoy is valued only in as far as it will assist them to "arry out their own fell doI signs, absolutely without regard for the [general welfare of the country. They [are entirely without an appreciation of the responsibilities of citizenship, and the true Australian can only regard the future of his country, in the hands ot such a callous and irresponsible element, with considerable misgivings.