WHAT NEXT?

Taranaki Daily News, 3 July 1919, Page 4

WHAT NEXT?

The man or woman who can, without a smile, read the proposals of the Miners' Federation as submitted to the Mineowners' Association, must be totally devoid of the saving grace of humor. Nothing more Gllbertian has ever been conceived, though the comedy element carries with it an appearance of seriousness which would seem to indicate that there is method in the madness. If the combined efforts of the federation have produced this stupendous piece of folly by way of a challenge, they must have been imbued with the spirit of Don Quixote when tilting at windmills. Imagination is all very well in its way, but is apt to travel in a circle, so that it is extremely difficult for any rationallyequipped mentality to regard these proposals otherwise than as the product of persons who are not responsible for their actions, The urgent need of the period is increased production, increased activity and increased industrial effort. This hsa been emphasised again and again by responsible statesmen' and sound economists. These miners, how-

ever, appear to have their own notions about these increases, They want increased pay, increased leisure and increased idleness at the expense of the community. They evidently desire to be men of means, whose income will permit of much holiday-making, and a plethora of spare time in which to arrange the affairs of the country to their own liking. They do not object to Work altogether, and for the present arc graciously pleased to attend at the mines for seven hours a day—from bank to bank—, but after the end of next year they will be too tired to work more than six hours a day, and, as no stipulated amount of output per man is named, it may be assumed that they will hew just as much—or ns little—as they please. On one point they are clearly emphatic; they must be paid every Friday afternoon, and not resume their occupation until Monday morning. Their delicate constitutions, which are evidently in need of frequent rest and protection from overwork, can only bear the strain of five hours in wet places. (What will our boys who have been in the trenches in France think of this?) Their selfrespect demands that they shall do no trucking, and there must not be more than one shift in twenty-four hours. Then as to holidays: The modesty of their demands is most striking—only about three weeks or more in a year, at full pay. But. this is not all. They require to be provided with free light, free tools and free house coal. Why not free beer, also? Each member of the community can Teadily think of numberless requisitions that might have been included to encourage still further demands, if only to make the idle times pass pleasantly; but possibly the present proposals are only the curtain-raiser to the main comedy that has yet to ba staged. Without doubt, if the present preposterous demands are conceded—which nost sane men will regard as unthinkable—the Labor machine will grind the people to powder, by paralysing production and all industry, so that though New Zealand may be regarded as a Paradise for the 4000 odd miners who consent to live here, it will certainly be a purgatory for all othera. It is time the curtain was rung down on such burlesques, and something like sanity secured. We are feeling the pinch of the shortage of coal, and its effect is ,not conducive to sympathy with monstrous proposals such as those oi' the miners.