NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 57, 1 December 1919, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Our American cousins arc the most curious mixture of hardheaclcdness and sentiment on the face of the earth. What country but the United States could produce the sloppiness of an American "sob story" i This strapge sentimental side of America is seen in the announcement that the bodies of all the American victims in the Lusitania are being exhumed and shipped for burial in the United States. Of all the nations who participated' in the fighting, on the Western front the Americans alone are demanding the wholesale repatriation of their dead. The ordinary British mind shrinks before so huge and futile a, task, and to mostiof us it seems far more fitting that our gallant dead should sleep peacefully where they fell rather than that their poor earthly remains should be carried hither and thither about the world. Soon the old battle-front will be marked by permanent and beautiful cemeteries, and the meditative traveller in centuries to come will sec in them visible testimony of how the fvoo peoples of the world gave of their best and bravest that liberty and justice might not perish. But it is likely that v futurc generations will .look in vain for this concrete p.yidenee of American participation.

In no way is Lord Haig making himself more beloved of the Army ho led than by his persistent and strenuous efforts -on behalf of the unemployed ox-soldiers. To-d,ay it is stated that there are 12,000 unemployed ex-oflicers in London alone. This fact should serve to remind us of tho thousands upon thousands of fine, strapping, goahead yqnnjj fellows we ought to be settling in New Zealand to our own and their own very great advantage as soon as we get the elections out of the way and settle down to a sound immigration policy.

As an answer to the wellsupporlcd charge that Hie LabourSocialists are- engaged in a systematic attack on free speocli by howling down thnir political opponents, the statement issued on Saturday by the Wellington Labour .Representation Committee is late, lame, and unconvincing. The people of Wellington and of every part of the Dominion in which the Labour extremists are politically active are in full possession of the facts. They know that this faction makes a settled practice of disturbing, its opponents' meetings and of attempting to deprive them of a hearing either on the public platform or in the Press. The people know also that, no other group or section in politics is guilty of such an attack on democratic rights, though here and there an odd individual may give a little- trouble. This b.iing so the disclaimer of the Labour Hopresentahion Committee of the obviously organised disturbances will be estimated everywhere at its real value.

It is to be hoped that the City Council's proposal to build a- new dam at Wainui is not a scheme, for impounding water that does not exist. The insufficiency of the Wainui supply is again markedly in evidence in the warning now givnn—at tin's early stage sf the season—that it may be necessary to cut off water for hydraulic lifts. If the Orongorongo River can he tapped by a tunnel at anything like reasonable cost it certainly seems a decidedly sounder scheme than a, new dam on the Wainui itself. Money should certainly not be. exneii'led in further conserving an admittedly insufficient supply if at similar cost a new and ample all-Uie-year-round (low can b< , obtained. Before tho citizens commit themselves to the building of a new dam they will be wiso to make sure that the alternative schemes have been thoroughly considered,

A somewhat unexpected" turn is fiiven to Ui,e (.'ummonwoiilth (.lections by the news nablml last wenk that Mil. Tun Ciii, the present leader of the. Caucus Labour Party, is disputing the pretensions of "Mk. .HvAX to succeed him in that office. The. existing position is peculiar. Mk. Ryax is in fact lending the Caucus Party in its campaign, but lie is not a member of the Federal House, nnd his status is not very clearly defined. The election manifesto of the party was signed by Mr. Tudor as lender and by Mr. Ryan as "Federal campaign director." Mr. Hughes recently expressed the opinion that Mr. Tunoit had no more to do with the manifesto than Julius Caesar. The, situation no doubt reflects the extent to which the Federal Labour Party is dominated uy outside organisations. It is, of course, not in doubt that Mr.. Ryan has been chosen by those who dominate the inner councils of the Labour Party 1.0 succeed Mr. Tunoi: as lender. Hitherto it lias been assumed that Mi!. Timoii would passively accent (lisplaciment. His refusal lo do vo, if he has in fact decided upon that course, may once ajjain .split the Labour Pa/dy. Tf his attitude in- regard to the referendum proposals is correctly reported, the

issue between himself and Mr. TSyax is already wide and deep. The Labour Party manifesto declares in this matter for an amendment uf the Constitution which would irive unlimited legislative powers in Australian affairs to the Commonwealth Parliament, "with devolution of adequate local powers upon subordinate legislatures and municipalities.' . The referendum proposals put forward by Mil. JiuoHKS are condemned in the manifesto on the ground that they do not provide for definite amendments of the Commonwealth Constitution and are merely intended to mislead the electors. If Mti. Tunon, as is reported, supports these proposals he declares, in effect that his signature to the Caucus Party's manifesto is a meaningless formality, and is taking a line that not only involves a complete breach with Mr. Rv/U\ but conceivably may culminate in his rejoining his former leader, Mn. Hughes, with or without a following.

Ix view of the claim made by local Labour-Socialists that the best way to promote industrial peace, is to return them to power, Queensland experience is instructive. The Labour Government, headed until recently by Mn. Hyan, took office in June, 1915. The Commonwealth Statistician supplies the following particulars of strikes and strike losses in Queensland year by year, before and after the advent of that Government: — Number of Total workers estimated directly loss Number and in of indirectly wagee. disputes, affected. £ 1913 ...... 17 2,006 28,37* 1914 18 I.OBC 11,747 1915 17 2,066 9.50S 1916 61 20.318 90,976 1917 39 13,M5 178,125 1918 Si 10,678 131,142 Though New South Wales, with its greater population, has at all times suffered more from strikes, no other State in the Commonwealth shows relatively for the same period anything like the increase in industrial upheavals witnessed in Queensland during the Ryan regime. The figures, of course, arc all the more significant when it is considered that the .Ryan Government . so pandered to the unions that employers now declare that a continuation of existing awards spells