WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 9 February 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

COAL DISPUTE. DEADLOCK CONTINUES. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Feb. 6. The refusal of the Mine Owners' Association to recognise the Alliance of Labor in its negotiations with the Miners' Federation seems likely to hold up the dispute 'between the parties for some time longer. The owners are quite definite and determined on the point. "While the Coal Mine Owners' Association is prepared to arrange for conferences with local unions," they say in their last communication to the Federation, "it definitely declined to recognise any outside body as one with which negotiations should be carried on." They contend they have done everything within their power towards bringing the present unsatisfactory state of affairs to an end, even to the length of making concessions far beyond the just claims of the men, and they are not going to stultify themselves now by opening negotiations with an outside body whose right to appear in a representative capacity is entirely unknown.

THE MEN'S CASE. The men's case appears to stand much where it did after the abortive conference of August last- Since then, however, it has teen prejudiced by the development of the "go slow" policy and by the indiscreet utterances; of some of its advocates. Mr. Arbucklc, the secretary of the Federation, who made quite a favorable impression upon the public during the early stages of the August conference, is now rightly or wrongly, being held mainly responsible for keeping the owners and the miners definitely apart. Be this as it may, there can be 110 doubt that the widespread inconvenience and loss suffered through the short coal supply has prejudiced a large body of public opinion against the men. It is not that the public grudges the men the better' conditions they are demanding, but it strongly resents the methods by which they are attempting to enforce' their demands.

A WORRIED MINISTER. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, fresh from the constituencies with the largest majority he ever has had in Parliament, is being worried as he never before has keen worried in his Ministerial life. The Mine Owners' Association having said its last word to the Miners' Federation lu.s turned over the coal problem to this unhappy man. He must stail.l between the miners and the consumers and determine what is to be done to prevent the shortage developing into a famine. Then he is nt loggerheads, ns nearly as may be, with his okl friends the farmers. Wool and meat growers are dissatisfied with the Government's handling of their produce; cheese and buttermakers are displeased with their pricas and shipping facilities. Now, on the protest against the Samoan trip comt-s an angry denunciation of the dispatch of an armed force to Fiji to suppress what Mr. Harry Holland persists in regarding as a legitimate demonstration against intolerable labor conditions.

IMMIGRATION. With admirable courage and questionable discretion Mr. Massev has chosen this particular moment to announce the Government's immigration policy, which provides for the introduction of a large amount of skilled and unskilled labor at a very considerable cost to the State. That the labor is required there, can be no sort of doubt. Farm laborers, carpenters, bricklayers and miners, with a preference for married men, are the immigrants most desired, and they are assured of their ability to command high wages under the very best of conditions. "Land women," who assisted in keeping agriculture going in the Old Country during the war are to receive free passages, and domestic servants—who, of v course, ought to have been styled "domestic helps"—are to have free passages and in their pockets 'besides. On the whole the scheme is an excellent one, hut already it is being assailed as a design to introduce cheap labor and so discomfort the unions.