The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, MAY I7, 1890. IS THIS A FREE COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3513, 17 May 1890, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1890. IS THIS A FREE COUNTRY.

i Unionism lias bailed up the Railway j Commissioners, and. demanded that i they shall pay certain casual laborers, : now receiving 8s per diem of eight i hours, from 10s to 12s, that they ' shall only employ Union labor, and thf.t they shall limit the number of apprentices to a certain scale, and adopt certain restrictions with respect to working hours, If tljcse demands are not complied with, a strike, or a series of Btrikes, is threatened. It is i well that such an issue lias been ' reached, so that we may know if New Zealand is to be governed by union- . ism, and whether the law is sufficient to protect employers of laborfrom the operation of brcanised boycotting. We can trust the Conimissioners to be firm, moderate, and just in their ' dealings with their employees, and wepa|}'a)sotrußt them not to give way to threats and lflenaces. We are i thankful that the railways are.jiot at ; tho present time under the control of tbe Government; for with a general election impending, there would be tbe ineyitablje fendenoy on the pa.rt of Parliament to giye w/iy jg ; tlie | pressure brought to'bear, It is said ' by manjf tj)st the Commissioners must go, and forljamenji mustresunie control of the lines, but % present labor difficulty will damp the ardour of politicians desiring to again administer the tt'ftffio, If the Commissioners do not prove equal to tbe very diflioult position In vy|)iq!) they are placed, the best ihijig to do fffll'Jja tp sell the railways' to ft syudjcalte strong enough to make t)ie most put of them, We have no objection in tlio world to every working man in the Colony earning 8s or 10s a day, if times will permit such wftges to bo , paid, but we do object to a number of men fixing nil®? on their own responsibility, and boycotting employers into paying them. Unionism I may reach the Wairarapa any day, aud compel farmers nod statjonbolders to pay eight and ten shillings a day. to their bands, aud what would be the result 1 The men now employed would have to be dismissed and the farmers would have to let their land lie idle. .Unionism, too, might !!) hand tbe printing trade here, and injpflgg gonditious which in a few months would sh.uj, almost all the printing ollices in the Wnirarapa. This might:not bo considered an unmixed misfortune by 801!)e, but to those who earn their ■ bread by type setting it would be a great .calamity, Ifmpi) ]yere working 1 on starvation wages' in %w 2ea land, we would not for one moment oppose any. effort on the part of i UnionifiHJ to pproYefte

workers, Under suoh circumstances wo should., regard. Unionism , as, a beneficent agent. . Butto set a fairly prosperous and well-to-do community by the ears iri quite another thing, and in this light it is a msnace and a misfortune. We repeat that we are glad that tbo issue has been raised with the Railway Commisaionei's, aiid trust # it will bo decided whether colonists in New Zealand are to become the slaves of' Unionism. Even if the present difficulty leads up to a railway strike, it will ba better for the Colony to face an ordeal of this kind ratbor than inch by inch give way to the mysterious representatives of unionism- There is an old fable to the effect that once a wen on the head of a man grew to such dimensions that at last it said, " I am the head and you (the head) are the wen." At present Unionism is the wen, but if allowed to grow unoheoked it will in time claim to be the head and act as Buoh, As a'servant, Unionism may be useful, but as a master, and this is what it is trying to he, it will cripple New Zealand. If only for the sako of the boys of the Colony, who have a right to be trained in industrial pursuits, we must oppose the door being slammed in their faces by Unionism. If four out of five of our sons are to bo boycotted out of tho labor market this is no longer a free country.'