The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1890.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 260, 3 November 1890, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1890.

For the cause that lacia assistance, For the -wrong that needs resistance, 3?or the future in the distance, •'set the good teat we can do.

Our cable despatches to-day state that the Australian Labour Federation has issued a manifesto expressingthe opinion that any further fight is hopeless,that the men who came out pledged to stand together should go back together, beaten but neither disbanded nor disgraced. This advice, it appears, is not accepted unanimously by the Australian Unionists now on strike, and although deserted by the officers whose cause they first espoused, a large number of the men will still prolong the struggle.

In New Zealand, the wharf labourers at the various Southern ports have already been relieved from their obligations to refrain from accepting employment, and they are applying, irrespective of the condition previously insisted upon, not to work alongside of non-Union labour. The Seamen's Union, howev«fr, at Dunedin, have resolved to "hold the fort "for the pre sent, in the hope that some settlement will be arrived at in Australia.

It is, of course, impossible to disguise the fact that the strike has failed in its objects. This was practically admitted by the representatives of the labour party at the Wellington Conference, when they offered to resume work with the men who had taken their places, on the simple condition that those among the latter who were competent should be admitted to the Unions without ballot. And unless the leaders of the strike were in a position to obtain continuous support for a prolonged period for the families of the men who have thrown up their employment, it would be cruel to place before them the alternatives of either breaking their pledges or starving. . : .. ' The appeals to the various Unions for a regular and liberal support have,

in the main, met with a very halfhearted response, and this fact contains a lesson which ought not to be lost sight of by those bodies. However magnificent the idea of federation may be, experience has shown that every Union must plao the chief reliance upon its own resources in fighting its battles. The members of a trade understand better than those outside the nature of their aims ; and the fact that the sacrifices they are making will result in their own direct advantage comes home t> them. An abstract principle is a thing about which few men care enough to forego accustomed comforts. The strike in New Zealand was never definite enough in its objects to command general sympathy. A majority of those who came out did so reluctantly, and with the same sense of needful submission to discipline which, animates soldiers in carrying out operations which have , not their sympathy. The Executive blundered egregiously. With a Council barely set up, with large numbers .of newlyformed Union,- wholly destitute of money, they plunged into a struggle that could only have been successful with a perfect organisation and large accumulated funds. Unions were called out which had scarcely a shilling to keep their members from starvation, and men who might, by working, have provided the sinews of war, thus became a charge upon the general funds.

We have before expressed the opinion that the collapse of the strike will not permanently injure legitimate Unionism. Whether the present men maintain their places or the strikers are re-instated, skilled workers will continue to form Unions for their self protection, and these organisations will comprise alltheraost intelligcntand capable men. But we believe that never again will Unionists place their means of livelihood unreservedly at the mercy of two or three men, who may be totally unfitted to wisely administer so momentous a trust. Autocracy is just as dangerous in the government of labour organisations as in the sphere of politics. Every Unionist will insist upon a general ballot before entering upon a strike, and before recording his- vote he will consider carefully whether the objects to be gained are important enough to justify so extreme a step, whether every effort has been made to attain them peacefully, and whether there is a reasonable prospect of success in the event of war. We also believe that the occurrences of the past two months will greatly strengthen the feeling in favour of establishing courts of arbitration and conciliation.