Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1920. THE RIGHT TO KNOCK OFF.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 4129, 29 October 1920, Page 2

Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1920. THE RIGHT TO KNOCK OFF.

One of the greatest leaders behind tlie British miners, yet one who would not induce his own unionists, the raiiwaymen, to strike in support of the miners, is Mr J. H. Thomas, M.P., P.C. He is a strangely inconsistent leader for one who wields so much influence and has so much authority. Recently, lie said there was nothing which could justify a national strike. Yet to-day such a strike is on without his active intervention. He was as late as last year more than a doubting Thomas regarding the value of Bolshevism. Indeed, he denounced it as a curse upon humanity. Yet he was one of the organisers recently ot the CouncU of Action, the avowed object of which was to maintain Bolshevism in Russia and to prevent Poland killing Leninism. "It is a preposterous thing," said Mr Thomas the other day, "that under any system of civilisation there should be men who are fit and able to work, but are unable to enfore their right to do so. Our readers will agree that it is more than preposterous—it is that men who advocate the right to work should practice the wrong to knock off work when the nation needs itj greatest output. And the most ardent of tho right-to-work advocates, the leaders who organised the Council of Action, refused to allow returned soldiers to enter trades unions m order to learn suitable trades. Ihe tact o* the matter is that the narrowest and mosb conservative creature on earth is the Labour leader and consequently he is just about as consistent as a week of windy weather.

head of the population of this country for all purposes is 20£ lbs. flper annum. Apart from the subsidy, therefore, the increased charge upon the public works out on the average at 10s 3d per head of the population per annum, or, including the subsidy, 20s 6d per annum. In return for this the demand for an increase of 2s 6d per week by the wharf labourers in the one case, and 3d per hour by the tramwaymen in. the other, to meet the increased cost of butter, is not only absurd, but actually preposterous. Yet some people, and even some members of Parliament, are prepared to make a first-class grievance out of the increased payment to producers. In view of the greatly enhanced cost of production, duo not only to the increased wages that have to be paid to the worker, but also to the value of dairying land and dairy stock, many of the butter producers have, on the showing of the Butter Prices Committee set up by the House, been receiving not more than Is per hour for. their own labour after meeting other producing coats. The New Zealand consumption of butter last year amounted to 220,000cwt., the balance of 340,0000cwt. being exported. Number One Leadership. . Since Mr McCallum's declaration of independence of the Liberal leader's authority there has been a certain amount of speculation in regard to the line of action that gentleman would follow in conjunction with other Liberal malcontents, notably Mr Vigor Brown and Mr Witty. Mr McCallum has spoken of a new party that was being formed in the House, including the Progressives, Independents, Liberals, Reformers, and Labourites. It is stated that the new party consists of Messrs Witty,' Brown, Poland, Atmore, Craigie, and McCallum (members of the Liberal Opposition), Messrs Statham, Sykes, J. Me. Dickson, and Dr Newman (members of the Reform Party), Messrs Kellet and S. G. Smith (Labourites), and Messrs Mitchell and A r eitch (Independents). According to Mr McCallum the state of parties in the House is: Reform Party, 43; members of the New Party, 15; Mr Wilford's party, 11; Red Labour Earty, 8. The Speaker (Sir Frederick ang), the Hon. A. Myers (who is still in England), and Mr W. D. Lysnar (£he member for Gisborne), are not included in this reckoning, although the Speaker has always stood as a Reform Party man, and Mr Lysnar was elected on the Independent/ Reform ticket. < But when it is all boiled down, it is obvious that there is an unusual number of one-man parties in the House, including the McCallum Party, the AA r itty (without being so) Party, the Lysnar Party, and the Vigor Brown Party.