THE STRIKE AND ITS EFFECTS.

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 4

THE STRIKE AND ITS EFFECTS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—You report that the working class are groaning under want of employment. Is it any wonder when you consider the enormous loss 'tmUiled by the late strike. Any of your readers who suppose that this is now a thing of the paet and to ba forgotten or ignored, is, in my opinion, grossly mistaken. I know of whoksade ' manufacturing finns and tdsa retail businesses throughout New Zealand who suffered such severe losses that it will take one to thTee yieara of anxious, etiwraoms effort to regain their former position. And I dare eay many of the farmers, market gardenera, and others, at any rata in the Auckland and Nelson provinces, could tell a similar talo. Wo know the actual cost of the strike to the Government. You reported hj at, I think, £90,000. The indirect cost, of which we have no record, run into millions. To-day's paper report* that through accumulated stocks of foreign coal held in Auckland, the coal mines of the district are reducing liande for months. This is anticipated to make business very bad during the winter, thus further penalising all classes for the mistakes of a section, and now the originators of all this Io&s and suffering demand that the Government and muncipalities shall go out of their way to find work for them. Is this equity? I don't think «v The sooner the strikers, those who struck and did their best to ruin this country, a-nd the large number who encouraged and : aided them by striko levies, are taught | that they must face the natural consaquences of their own actions, and as they made their beds so roust they lie upon ! them, the better it will be for all parties, i You report that there are a number of ] women amongst the ranks of the unemployed. They must eurejy bo very an- j skilled. From Auckland to Dunedin there is not a clothing, undercJothing, or shirt factory but what is suffering' from a chronic 'dearth of labor. So bad is it that many large firms tell me they could at any time give steady and remunerative employment to from 50 to 100 extra hands each, a»d many of them have been forced. to close down certain branches of manufacture through inability to obtain the necessary labor. Look at the demand for domestic servants. There are good women in New- Zealand whosa health is breaking down in their ©tterapt to overtake their heavy burden of domestic duties. They offer comfortable homes and wages- out of all proportion to the service obtained, and. get either no response or incompetent j girle, many of whom are grossly untruthful and wholly without a sense of duty or honor. Wo want a vigorous policy of im* migration 'to awaken these workers to a full sense of their economic value, and unless we get that New Zealand will soon be a good place to live out of.—l am, etc., COMMEBCTAL. June 5.