TINKERING WITH THE LAW

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3067, 1 May 1917, Page 4

TINKERING WITH THE LAW

The'members of the National Government perhaps realise to-day bettor than they did a week ago tho un J wisdom of making' bargains with law-breakers which may lead to doubts arising in the public mind as to the courso of justice proceeding unswervingly to a just conclusion. When it was agreed conditionally on tho coal-miners resuming work that the Government would not press for penalties in the cases of certain miners and their officials who had been, guilty of breaches of the War Regulations, the Ministers took a very unwise step. They had tho whole country' behind them in their expressed determination to rigidly enforce the law; the miners by their wanton and deliberate disregard of the welfare of all classes of citizens and of the national interests as well had alienated all public sympathy; and there should have been no compromise with the men who had bpeiuy' defied the law to the injury of their countrymen and their country. Within a few days of the agreement with the coalrainers being entered into, it ; has been twice broken. First the State coal-miners and now the men working in. the Paparoa. Mine have broken'faith and refused to carry out their pledge to resume work and abandon "go-slow' s ' methods... Jt is ] the old story—"To hell with agreements." The State miners no sooner decided,to go back to work• tisun the Paparoa miners to work, and at tho present moment, so far as the information to hand discloses, aro_ on strike; It is a bitterly humiliating position for tie country .to be placed in that theso men should imagine that they can go on defying the law with impunity while at the same timo bringing inconvenience, loss and hardship on tho whole community. • It is true that in connection with the "go slow" policy adopted in the mines the Government took-action, and they are to be commended therefor; but since then matters have been allowed to drift into a most unsatisfactory position. It is gratifying to note that.the Stipendiary Magistrate at Auckland, Mb. FitAZETt, declined to pay an'y heed to the bargaining between Ministers and the coal-miners as to tho course to be followed by tho Crown in the matter of not pressing for penalties for

the offences committed by the men on trial. Mn. Feazeii saw only lus duty as one appointed to administer the law fairly and justly, and he imposed penalties which in his judgment adequately met the needs of the occasion. • That he has acted as all would wish to see a free and independent Magistracy) act no one can for a moment question. Ministers must realise that the people of the Dominion are out of patience with any temporising with men who because, thoy are engaged in one of the country's vital industries imagine they can hold up and blackmail the whole country. There is too much at stake in the war in which the Empire is engaged to permit of kid-glove methods with • men who would deliberately and wantonly cripple the efforts of their countrymen and. assist the \enemy at this critical stage of the struggle.