NEW ZEALAND.

Press, Volume XLVIL, Issue 7748, 31 December 1890, Page 5

NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand during the past year has celebrated its jubilee, it has.passed through a general election, and it has suffered from what may justly be called a labor war, more extensive in its effects than any previous trouble of the kind in the colony, and of a character altogether new. It cannot be said therefore that the records of the past year are tame or uneventful. Some people hold that certain years in the life of au' individual—euch as the seventh, the fourteenth, the twentyfirst, and so' on, are "critical" years, fraught with special peril, or at any rate special .significance. If the same theory applies to States as well as to individuals, we should say that the fiftieth year of New Zealand was of a decidedly critical character. However, now that she has passed through it safely, let us hope that it may be followed by a prolonged period of peaceful progress, undisturbed by internal strife or outward shocks. First, let us briefly sketch the history of the labor trouble—decidedly the most important event of the year. The earnest warning of the .coming storm was given when the railway servants began to agitate for a reduction in hours, the abolition of piecework, and a re-adjustment of wages. The Commissioners, however, met the men in a friendly spirit, & satisfactory agreement was come to by which the position of the men was considerably improved, and it was believed that the difficulty was at an end. .Suddenly, however, the storm broke out again in a quarter where it was quite unexpected. -, We refer to the now historical Weutcojibe „ and Tombs dispute. The poiut to be decided . was one of the greatest importance, and was in short whether labor had a right to dictate to capital whom it should or should not employ. This was the issue raised by the New Unionism, and against this principle the employers decided to make their stand. A new |eature about the contest which distinguished it from previous conflicts between capital and labor was the fact that it was fought not by a single Union, but by a group of affiliated Unions,' who made the~Maritime Coun,cil .thair~niOUthpieoe... ..The Maritime Council demanded that Messrs Whitcombe and Toiibs should dismiss cer- \ tain girls and non-Union hands in their employ. This the firm declined to do. The Maritime Council thereupon issued instructions- for " the ! universal boycott." A number of ;firms who had been selling the goods of Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs were called upon to stop doing so, and many of them complied with the demand. More than this, it was announced that both the railway handj and "the men employed on the wharves and steamboats of the colony would re/ fuse to handle the" firm's goods. At this point the Hail way Commis-sioners-intervened. They intimated very jlaiuly that as common carriers they were bound to convey the goods of Messrs. Whitcombe and Tombs as well as those of other people, and that any of their hands who refused to perform their duty handling those goods would be instantly dismissed. The Union Steam Shipping Company took up a similar line. Sot- a few dajs the positiou was most critical, ; and it looked as if the colony was on \ the eve of a general strike of men J engaged in the carrying trade, and i consequently of a general paralysis of traffic. The Maritime Council having i paused two or three days for consideration, declined the responsibility, of ordering a general strike, but appealed to the community to refrain from purchasing goods from the firm. ', * The public breathed freely once more. Strange to say, 'how<9ver, after having thus settled our own difficulties we were drawn into a serious and expensive struggle in spite of our selves by persons living twelve hundred miles away, with whom we bad no real community of interest. It all arose out of the"affiliation. system. A two-fold labor trouble had sprung up in New South Wales. The wharf laborers in sympathy with . the Shearers , Union decided to boycott all wool shorn by non-union men, and &ent down for shipment. Almost simultaneously the: Marine Officers' Union presented certain demands in the direction of shorter, hours aud more pay. • The owners refused to consider these claims until the officers had first separated themselves from the Seamen's Union, with which they had affiliated. This they declined to do, and ■ a wholesale strike of* men connected with the shipping followed. Nearly all the Australian steamers had to be laid up, the miners joining in the strike, a serious coal famine was the result, At first, the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand were not; affected, having some time before acceded to the representations of their officers, and it looked as if there would be quite a "boom" for New Zealand shippers and producers, in sending over produce of at! kinds, including coal, to the Australian markets. The Maritime Council, however, decided that being affiliated with the Australian trade organizations, the New Zealand Unions under its immediate control must also "come out." The men obeyed, as usual, unquestiomngiy, the orders of the Maritime Council, and in a short time New Zealand was in as bad a state aa Australia. There was one thing, however, that the Maritime Council had not reckoned

upon. Tbw was the supply of free laborjwailable. There was the more forthcoming because the sympathy of a very large proportion of the public was totally against our being involved m a struggle with which we really had nothing whatever to do. Our readers are familiar with what followed. Men of all classes, not usually accustomed tj> manual work, volunteered freely for the purpose of lumping cargo and in other ways assisting to keep the ports open. In a comparatively short time a supply of non-Union labor was organised sufficient to keep the shipping trade j?oing, until at length, when the Unionists recognised that the struggle was hopeless and gave way abandoning their previous determine, tion not to work with non-Union labor—it was only to find in many cases that their places had been filled, and there was no work for them to turn to. At the present time many men who had been in steady employment at good wages for years find themselves with their occupation entirely gone. The labor trouble had a marked effect upon the general elections. It was almost inevitable that any Government which happened to be in power during such a struggle should suffer. The Unionists were bound to go against a Ministry that would not actively espouse their cause. On the other hand, any Ministry showing such unfair partisanship would have had a still larger vote' cast against them by those who hold that it is the duty of a Government not to take either one side or the other in such a struggle, but to do as Sir H. Atkinson and his colleagues did on this occasion—let the combatants fight the matter out themselves, only intervening if there seems an opportunity of bringing about an amicable arrangement by mediation. The Atkinson Governmentundoubtedly stood well with the couutry during the last session of Parliament. The Colonial Treasurer was able to show a surplus of £115,000, and alter paying the balance of deficit left by the late Government there was still a net surplus of £36,569. Only one serious disadvantage encumbered the .Minis* terial party. After long years of devoted and brilliaut service to his country their doughty chief, Sir H. A. Atkinson, had to announce to his followers that owing to ill health he was unable to lead them as of yore. The party would not hear of his resigning the Premiership. It was arranged that his place in the House, during important debates should be filled by Mr* MrrcHELaON as Acting-Premier, and that he should be relieved of departmental work. Such an arranger tnent, although creditable to both parties, could not fail to hamper to some extent the Ministerial cause. Yet when Mr. Ballancb brought forward a wane of confidence motion it was defeated by six votes,.and there is every reason to believe that the Ministry had the fuil confidence of the country as well as of the House. The labor trouble, however, supplied the Opposition' with just the opportunity they wanted. They cheerfully adopted the "labor" ticket without any -question, and when,' as the result of the Unionist block vote, some twenty " labor candidates w were returned, the .Opposition promptly claimed every man of them as owing allegiance to their side. At firet Mr. Ballance and his followers thought they had a decided majority, and clamored loudly for the instant resignation of the Government. Since then, however, they have had reason to doubt whether the majority is quite iso decided a3 they at first imagined. The Cabinet have decided to call Par* tfament together almost immediately to consider the position. Sir H. Atkinson-, unfortunately, is still in a very Unsatisfactory state of health, or there is little doubt that be would continue to guide the country's affairs. As it is, a Ministerial reconstruction, with Mr. Bb.y'ce aa "Premier, is generally regarded as the beat solution of tiie difficulty. - The colony has-at length definitely made up its mind that it caunot enter v into any intercolonial federation' just at present. Sir Joss Hall and Capt. 11DS3ELL, who represented New Zealand at the Federation Conference held m Melbourne during the early part of the year; gave utterance to the feeling of; tliia colony when thoy expressed the warmest sympathy ..of New Zealaud \ with the movement iv Australia, but.i explained that it would be disadvantageous for us, owiug to our distance from the 'Continent and other causes, to merge our identity in the proposed confederation. This view was endorsed by Parliament during the last session. * The year will be notable in the annalsof the Church of England aa the year of the greac Primacy dispute, j Into ail the knotted tangles of that! intricate, question we need oot. now enter. The Bishop bt Wellington, it will be remembered, was elected by the General Synod as Primate, in euccession to the Most Rev. Dr. Harpbr, The'■.■validity, of the election was challenged by the Bishop of Nelson, and pronounced by the Standing Commisaiou to have been informal. Owing to the terribly involved position the affair was allowed to get into, it looked at one time a.% if there was no legal Primate, and no possibility of legally convening the General Synod to elect one. What was certainly nofc a less evil was the fact that a doubt was thrown on the validity of the appointment of the new Bishop of Christchurch, to which position Archdeacon Jujuroa, of Ballarat, had been elected. Fortunately some clearsighted and ingenious ecclesiastical authority hit upon a way out of the jungle. It was arranged that the Bishop of Wellington should resign the Primacy to the Bishop of Nelson, the senior Bishop, and that the latter should convene a epecial meeting of ; the General Synod for the purpose of settling the question of who was to be Primate, and also to confirm and validate _ the election of the Bishop of Christchurch. This was done, and the Syncd once more elected the Bishop of Wellington to the chief position in the Church. Two sailing vessels trading to New Zealand have been posted as missing daring the year—the barque Assaye, bound to Wellington, and the ship Marlborougb, bound from Lyttel ton to London. There is, uufortuuately, no reason to doubt that both have been lost with all hands. Wreckage evidently belonging to the Assaye has been washed ashore at the Chatham Islands The Marloorough, it is probable, was lost among the ice in the Southern

. ocean, an unusual number of Jce- . bergs having been reported by other vessels taking the same route abont the same time. Among other disasters during the year may be mentioned the burning of the old Government printing office at Wei* lington, resulting in. the. loss of a lot oi valuable Govemmentplantandmafcerial, worth nearly 4*10,000 inpU. The closing days of the year have been saddeued by a shocking colliery disaster at Huntley in the Auckland District. Four men were killed by a fall of earth. Two of them were mercifully killed outright, but there was something very melancholy about the death of the other two, Casby and Harkl3. They vrera, at first imprisoned by the fall' of earth, and were discovered by a rescuing party alive, but seriously injured. The rescuers had cleared away the earth from the upper part of their bodies, and one of them had his arm round one of the injured men, when a fresh fall took place, and struck the rescuer, a man named Hysdman, across the back, besides once more burying the two unfortunates who had been so nearly brought out alive. Casby and Harris were again disinterred by the rescuing party, but this time W9re both quite dead. Hyndman received such serious injuries that his his life was at first despaired of. The Masonic fraternity have been exercised during the year by the formation of a Grand Lodge for New Zealand, Bro. H. Thomson being elected the first Grand Master. The movement, however, was far from unanimous, and on this account the Lodge has not been able to secure recognition from the Grand Lodge of England. An athletic feat performed recently by two young New Zealanders deserve to be chronicled iv this page After several fruitless efforts, Messrs' Mannbrinq and Dixon succeeded in climbing to within a couple of hundred feet or so of the actual summit of Mount Cook—an exploit only once previously performed, namely by the Rev. W. S. Grbbn, an experienced Alpine explorer, assisted by two professional Swiss guides. The jubilee of the colony was celebrated by an Exhibition at Duuedin, which proved a triumphant success, and was far, the largest affair of the kind ever held-in the colony. Local celebrations on a very successful scale were also held at Wellington on January 22nd, and at Auckland on the 29th January, there being a somewhat absurd contest between the two places named as to which date is really the anniversary of the colony. Perhaps by the time our centenary is reached this knotty point , will have been decided, and we shall be able to have a. really colonial celebration on a comprehensive scale. Until .the outbreak of the labor troubles it looked as if the Jubilee year was going to be one or the moat successful New Zealand had ever kuowu. Tfie exports, especially of frozen meat, showed an enormous rate of expansion, aud on all sides a feeling of renewed confidence and hope was expressed. -All this, it need hardly be said, received a rude shaking, when the deplorable "labor war " bruise out. lfc will be some time, we fear, before the- feeling 'of insecferity > tnus en-! , gendered will have wholly passed away. Still, we have the consolation of knowing that in our adopted home we have a "goodly heritage." Man will continue to reap the advantage of its fertile iand aud geuial climate in fruitful crops aud multiplying flocks and herds. We have these oenefits secured to us, even though in our folly we throw half of them away. Wecau only hope that with _ the progress of education aud eulighteouieat, a truer wisdom may inform all classes of tho community, and that as the result of more fully understanding our interdependence upon each ocbefj* , " a truer co-operation may prevail. Then, judeed, will New Zealaud be one of the most favored spots on the earth's surface. For. after all, what are the most fruitful lands, and the choicest gifts of Heaven without the knowledge to use them aright ? We may say of Wisdom as Adam did coucemiug his helpmeet.-—• .■■■..-.•, ■ ■■• ■..-. .. ... , .' '■ , Bat neither breath of morn when'she ascends, ' ; With charm of earliest birds, nor rising sun,' On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flower, •.•.:■■: , GHst'ring with dew, nor fragrance after h. sbowfcrs; . ■./...■!■■■. ■;•-. ■. ..■: ■:- Nor sratcful evening mild, nor silent night, With this her solemn bird, nor walk by 1 moon ■■--■. . Or glittering starlight, without thee is '■■■'■.■ sweet. ■ - -.- • '■•'■''■'-'■■■■■.. •■■ - ■ . ;