THE MEAT WORKS STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10560, 16 February 1912, Page 6

THE MEAT WORKS STRIKE.

[To The Editor.] Sir,— "While congratulating Mr Laracy for his courage in signing his name to the hysterical concoction in to-day's issue of your paper, I sympathise with him lor his lack of discretion in doing so. Ho has endeavoured to assign some justification for an, iitttcrly unwarranted action by a piece of silly rcroecliing. Mr Laracy, ill the midst of the glory of his own original sense of justice, views with horror anyone who disapproves the action of men who left their employees not only in a manner regardless of the consequences to blameless settlers, but so as to deliberately cause the other employees needless trouble. I can only assume that Mr Laracy is one of the;:e well-known agitators. When he credited me with being one of "the greatest assets the Labour movement can possess" (ifor which I thank him) I hope lie remembered that he was absolutely the least. Let me assure the wage earners in general —never -mind Mr Laracy—that the farmers are no enemies of theirs. The position simply is, that we have been prevented, through no fault of ours, from selling our sheep to pay our debts and earn our living. In our honest opinion the strikers are to blame. If they can produce some reasonable justification for this injury, then we arc with them against the companies. We must dispose of our sheep, and if the men who have failed in their duty prevent us, are we to be screamed at if we try to carry 011 our business by other legitimate means? Mr Laracy, presumably, will say, "No! You n]ust'let your flocks starve, and become bankrupt in order that a small section of the community, can derive their full illegitimate spoils by violence and defiance of the law."—l am, etc.. SMALL FARMER. Carterton, February 15, 1912.