THE END OF THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 196, 13 May 1908, Page 6

THE END OF THE STRIKE.

AS, according: to the"poet, "even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea,-" So even the longest strike, however it may be encouraged by a Govcrrimeut determined not to enforce the law, must at last come to an jend; The Blackball strikers resume work to-morrow. The public will bo glad to hear, this news, but it is safe to say that their pleasure will be anything but enthusiastic. .It is impossible to feel enthusiastic over a settlement thai will only send the publie's thoughts travelling backward over a_ most discreditable chapter in the history of the country's administration. The strike has ended; that is something to be thankful for, but thankfulness in. overshadowed by the disastrous effects that it has had, and triust have, upon the coiiiltry. The loss to industry has been very greatr-ovcr 150 men have been idle for nearly - three ■ months—but that, in the final reckoning, will be one of the smallest items on tho debit side. ' By neglecting to tako prompt measures to uphold the latf, and by transcending all recorded examples of evasion of responsibility, the Government has not only subjected tho country to the economic injury of a long strike, but has dealt (■. staggering blow to industrial order, and shaken the confidence of every employer of labour in the Dominion.

Wo have seen Ministers paltering with their duty for weeks, spinning out to the extrome of procrastination the procedure of the law .in the hope that tho strike would end; inventing intolerable meanings for statutes, and refusing to allow a duly-constituted tribunal to question their usurpation of its function, assuring the law-breakers that they Would not bo imprisoned in any case, and, in short, discrediting the law of the land in order to keep on good terms with a political faction. The conduct of the strikers and their friends has throughout shown the demoralising effect of tho Government's ignoble surrender to ths trades unions, and when he comes to effect those amendments in the Act- which ho considers necessary, but which, bo far as they are known, are utterly irrelevant to the real issms created by the strike, the Premier will realise oxactly how much injury he has done to the country. If Labour was able to alarm Mri Millar 'into withdrawing his. amending Bill last year, how mucu smaller now is tho prospect of our get' ting any cquitablo amendment from the Gtbvfltnmgiifc I What tho Government hai sown', that it must reap., and tho harvest

is not one that can be contemplated without grave concern by that section of industry which has been receiving endless intimations that only the penalties of the law are for it, and only the benefits for the trades unions. In his references to the Act at Rcefton, the Premier seemed to hint that ho intends to employ a modern variant of the ancient practice of embarking on wars abroad to distract publie attention from woes at home. But the public will not be deceived, by amendments of the Court, into supposing that the thing really needed is anything other than amendment of the Government's administration of the Act. As to the Blackball settlement, the miners seem to have obtained practically all that they went on strike to gain. - But the triumph of the men is likely to turn out a Pyrrhic victory, as every victory must be that is won in the face of an outraged public opinion. The strike is at an end: the struggle is just beginning.