A TRIAL OF STRENGTH.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 October 1919, Page 4

A TRIAL OF STRENGTH.

The statement made in the House last night by the Premier plainly indicates that the time has arrived when the position in relation to the coalminers and watersiders must be faced and dealt with. "We have got," said Mr. Massey, "to assert the right of the_people to govern the country in their own way." If this statement means anything, it can only be construed as intimating that if it is a question of a fight, then it will be a fight to a finish, and either direct action will be strangled or the whole country will be paralysed. The extremists of the community of Labor are apj®ently bent on adopting the worst tgctics of the British Triple Alliance. The miners have a dispute with the owners, whose last offer—the limit of thpir concessions—the miners refuse to accept, nor will they agree to arbitration by the Court, by a Supreme Court Judge, or any other set of men in whom the public have confidence. Instead, they enter upon a campaign to force the owners to comply with the demands, firstly, by adopting "go slow" tactics, which have failed in their object, and next by enlisting the co-operation of the watersiders in refusing to unload overseas coal, knowing full well that the public will suffer, and hoping that pressure will be brought on the employers to compel them to yield the outrageous demands made by the men. It is practically a demand by the men concerned to "stand and deliver." The people of New Zealand have not become ■impotent to deal with a crisis of this kind. Hotherto they have been indulgent and submitted philosophically to the and losses consequent on the shortage of coal, but they, like the mine owners, have a limit beyond which they will not go,'nor will they tolerate weakness 011 the part of the Government. The hold-up has been timed, doubtless, at what was considered a propitious moment—the dying hours of a prolonged Parliament, with the general elections in sight. All the better in one way for the cause of law, order, and sanity. The Government dare not temporise; rather should they follow the example of Mr. Lloyd George, who, seeing the labor storm brewing, organised his plan of campaign so as to be in a position to settle the question of supremacy. A strong attitude will gain the instant support of the right-minded portion of the community. The danger to the Dominion of having its industrial, domestic, and other activities paralysed by the action of.a small band of labor irreconcilables is too great to allow any half-hearted measures to be taken. The men are earning high but will be content with nothing less than acting as dictators. This is an intolerable condition for any self-respecting people to endure, ■and if it is to be a fight—and the irreconcilables have been shaping that way for the past year—then let us have it out now to the bitter end, and decide onee again who is to be supreme in New jjealand—constitutional authority or a few thousand disgruntled men who have been, and are," altogether .too well treated in the matter of pay and hours compared with other manual workers. If the Government takes a firm stand —and Mr. Massey's speech last r.ight indicates that it will —the result will not be in doubt. The pity is that the, loss, inconvenience, and misery that must follow a hold-up and fight will fall more heavily on the innocent than on the guilty.