THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1907. LABOUR WRATHFUL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8392, 8 April 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1907. LABOUR WRATHFUL.

The Minister for Labour and some of his colleagues attributed the trend of events in connection with the recent dispute in the slaughtering trade entirely to the temporary presence in the colony of a number of Australian slaughtermen, who cared nothing for the labour laws of the colony. This statement has brought upon the Ministers the severe censure of the Trades and Labour Conference which concluded its sittings at Dunedin on Saturday last. The references made by the Hon. J. A. Millar and Dr. Findlay (AttorneyGaneral) to the Austral-kins were declared to be*"uncalled for, offensive, and contemptible," and though some of the delegates endeavoured to have these epithets modified, the Conference adhered to them. The attitude adopted by the Ministers in the recent strike is evidently bitterly resented by the Labour Party, if the tons of the speeches delivered at the Conference is any criterion. This feeling does not bode well for the future relations of the party and the Government. The rift disclosed may go on widening. There appears to be an idea in the mind of the Labour Parly that in all industrial disputes the Government should side with the employees. This idea,' if given effect to, would strike at the- root of all just and impartial administration. Whatever its sympathies might be, no Government could permit itself to be the mere instrument of a particular section of the community. Such an attitude would court inevitable disaster. The Government has, apparently, ruffled the Labour Party, and there are signs that its fortitude will be put to the test during the coming session.