WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1886.

Auckland Star, Volume XVII, Issue 205, 1 September 1886, Page 2

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1886.

New Zealand working men are to be strongly commended for the uniformly orderly manner in which they conduct themselves in times of trade depression or during unhappy struggles between Capital and Labour. In this respect they present a most favourable contrast to workmen in almost every other part "I the globe. The world-wide depres-

! ion that has hung for the past year over industry and commerce, and which we hope is now passing away, has led i j disorder and outrage in London, Brussels, Chicago, and other cities. Even in the sister colonies of Australia there have been disturbances more or less marked—"unemployed" noting at Adelaide, an early closing cmeute at Melbourne, and trades union rages at Sydney and neighbour hood. Coincident with these oc curences there has been a great dearth of employment and actual distress among the working classes of New Zealand; there have within the past year been several strikes —those inevitable concomitants of dull times; but there has been on the whole, a general absence of objectionable practices. We would refer to recent disturbances in New South Wales for the purpose of showing what outrages are possible when working men " lose their heads" in a bitter struggle with tlieir employers, and also with a view to emphasising the fact that

even democratic communities must sternly punish and suppress every such lawless ebullition, There has been a strike of brickmakcrs at Sydney, and trouble has been caused by non-union men going to work on the employer's terms. Thereupon a member of the union — one of the exasperated "strikers"—used threats of violence fo one of the "nobs," \mlli the result that he was prosecuted and fined in £"i and costs. In that case only threats of violence were used; but in the case of the miners' strike at YVbllongong actual violence was employed towards some of the " blacklegs." A mob of about 200 miners attacked four men who persisted in working, and threatened to lynch them by burning down a hut in which they were. One of the threatened men ran off and was hotly pursued, and he only saved himself from rough treatment by firing a shot from his revolver at his pursuers. The mob then threatened the manager of one of the coal mines, and an attempt was made to blow up his house with dynamite or some other explosive : bill fortunately only a dairy attached to the house suffered damage. About two dozen of the ringleaders in these outrages were arrested, and two of them have been sentenced to four months' imprisonment, and three others to lesser periods. The trial of others was pending when List mail left. It is well known that Trades Unions are powerless to prevent such lawless acts on the part of their members; but the working men's cause suffers all the odium attaching to outrages such as we have been describing, and in their interests, every Tracks Union should find means of marking their disapproval of men who resort to violence, either by fining them heavily, or suspending them from the Union for a time. The growth of such a spirit among working men affords the best hope for labour disputes being conducted in a lawful and order y manner.