CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 118, 20 May 1914, Page 10

CORRESPONDENCE

THE JULY CONFERENCE TO THE EDITOR. Shy— According to the monthly letter to Australian Labour papers sent 'by the United Federation of Labour (the Social Democrats), the July conference is being looked forward to "for complete solidarity, locally, industrially, and politically, the reaching out of hands across the Tasman Sea to grasp in complete unity those of the comrades who have been ever ready to assist their New Zealand brothers." Arbitration Unions affiliated to the Trades and Labour Councils and those who are unaffiliated with the Social Democratic Party will do well to ponder before sending delegates to the July conference. The April conference was convened by the Auckland Secretaries' Association "to discuss and suggest amendments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act," but according to the monthly letter quoted above the most important decision arrived at was not what the delegates were called together for, but the Australian Unity scheme. It will be well to do a little thinking and con 1 over the Social Democratic Party and its • methods. They have not by any means been an uplifting agency in the cause of labour; rather to the contrary. By a strange irony of fate they captured the delegates called together to consider the Arbitration Act- when they have all along strenuously avoided using it in the settlement of disputes. Secret conclaves with employers, round the table agreements, were their order of the day, and their famous war cry of "to hell with agreements" has brought more discredit to the labour cause than anything else. By going outside the Arbitration Court, and by their bad strike record, by using any end to justify the means, when the means themselves were not justified., they have put up an unenviable record. On every occasion they have gone out of their way to slaj* in the face those forces in the Labour Party who have believed in acting within the Jaw and reserving their strength for the political field, and if the, law didn't suit to alter it. The Arbitra* tion Act had its weaknesses, has its weaknesses, and will continue to have them so lorig as Labour has to drive a wedge- between two other political parties to obtain redress, but it is fetter to keep driving the wedge home and gain some advantages, than to keep men in a state of industrial turmoil and strikes without any gain, and with heavy personal loss. Social Democrats in their methods have tried to use short cuts to victory, and in doing so have cut themselves. Practically every union that has been associated with them has depleted coffers. To * assist in their propaganda £1000 has been borrowed from Australia, and now they wish unaffiliated trades unionists to meet them in conference in July and become part and parcel of them and give a better security for their borrowing by allying with the people ' they borrowed from. Whether Australia will listen to the call from without is another story. The Social Democrats would have pulled to pieces the work of the Australian Labourites if it had not been for the strong stand taken by Mr W. M. Ilnghec. He will probably refuse to accept an alliance with the tender New Zealand lamb, that would rather break than make, even if its bleat be unity. In any cause that needed assistance, or for wrongs that needed resistance, there has always been a strong bond of practical sympathy between Australia and New Zealand, and this will always continue without any binding unity. The political aspirations of the New Zealand Labour . Party must be confined to the Dominion ; it cannot afford to be the junior party with Australia. There are problems here to be dealt with that can be dealt with on the spot without any need to confer with partners 1200 miles away. There have been far too many conferences held in New Zealand on behalf of Labour, at the expense of the legitimate for the illegitimate. The Social Democratic Party have been the kill joys to the Labour Party for long enough ; they should no longer be tolerated and should be told so plainly With their wide extravagance of language, their boasts, and their spleen they have become a menace to Labour. Outside of the trades unionists there are an immense number of people who believe in the Labour cause, and these people are being lost to the cause, by frenzied agitators who cannot control their speech and practically insult by their immoderate use of the language anyone who cannot see eye to eye with them. A man who cannot guard' his speech, who keeps on using time-worn alliterations culled from Socialistic literature, is no use to Labour. — I am, etc., WEDGE. 16th May, 1914/ SAND DRIFTS TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — Some time after the esplanade was constructed at Maranui and the trees (? sticks) were planted, I pointed out through the medium of the press the uselessness of such planting, and my prediction became true, as they were all killed, and were replaced with Norfolk Island pines, which are also dead. I wonder what the civic authorities will try next? It has always struck me as somewhat remarkable that more attention is paid by those authorities to the opinions of persons who have only been in the country for a short time and imagine they know a lot than to the advice of those who have lived all their lh'es in the place, and know what the climate is and what the winds are capable of — and who remember the hills bush-clad. What about those shade trees at Kelburne? Did the Kelburne residents on a nice summer's day take advantage of their shade, or did they shelter under the wooden protectors? Mr, O. Smith, in voicing a deputation that waited on the City Council at its recent meeting to ask it to increase the height of the embankment on that portion now done at Lyall Bay, evidently j has had no experience of sand-drift, or he would not have Jflade such a suggestion to the council. It would be just as futile to endeavour to stop a river from running by tipping sand into it as to attempt to stop the drift by increasing the height of the wall. If the council does desire to waste the money of the ratepayers, and the ratepayers quietly submit, well and good. To increase the height of the wall to prevent the drift will only .gause the sand to pile up against the wall until it reaches the top, and then fall over, until in time the wall will become buried. Another thing that will happen is that if the height of the wall is increased as proposed, the sand will in time cover to a considerable depth the sheds, etc., that are in front of the wall. If it is desired to prevent the sandhills facing the sea from being blown and washed away, the sooner steps are taken to plant them With marram grass (as thickly as can be done) tho better, and nothing hus jH'oved so useful. Naturo has done to a. certain, extent something b^ parti-

ally covering them with certain kinds of vegetation, but the constant climbing and running over and sliding down by children and others are destroying Nature's efforts, so man's must come in. There is too much money wasted in giving effect to suggestions from the inexperienced. If anyone wants to see what the sea is quietly doing in the way of encroachment, let them go to the eastern end of the bay, and they will find out something that will surprise Uiem, particularly if they go when a southerly gale is blowing at the time of spring tides.- — I am, etc., WASTE NOT, WANT NOT. 16th May, 1914.