Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1932 INDUSTRIAL CLOUDS.

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1932, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, AUGUST 13, 1932 INDUSTRIAL CLOUDS.

JN direct contrast with the economic outlook abroad where various factors are tending to permit the world to emerge from the financial depression, the industrial outlook in New' Zealand gives cause for some anxiety. Unless wise counsels prevail, serious trouble will arise, the cost of which must be disastrous, setting back, unnecessarily, national prosperity. It is reported that the coal-mining conference at Wellington, this week, ended in a deadlock, and the West Coast miners will be asked to reconsider their decision not to accept the terms agreed upon at the

recent Westport conference. It is

to be hoped that any resentment I with the proposed conditions of working will not blind the miners to the present state of the coal industry. Orders are difficult to get, and immediate prospects of continuous employment are not so bright as they were, when Winter requirements had to be met. The coal-mining industry cannot afford to indulge in internal dissension at this juncture, and this fact should be realised in time, by all concerned. Another industry which is fac-

ing a critical issue is that connected with the waterside and shipping businesses. The present awards expire shortly, and difficulty is being experienced in arriving at'new agreements. Many idle ships have made many ■ wharves slack, and the earnings of owners and their employees have considerably decreased. Anything in the nature of a strike would but add to these losses, and here again, is need for prudence rather than an aggressive policy. The timberworkers, too, are being encouraged by some to be bellicose, although few callings have been harder hit of late years than the timber industry. The millers have been compelled to suffer heavy losses, and find it difficult to retain past markets. Their employees would be foolish to add to this burden, which they, themselves, have to share.

The amended industrial arbitration legislation has not brought j peace, most of the proceedings at recent Conciliation Councils proving fruitless. Awards lapse, with nothing definite in the shape of agreements to take - their place, thus, a door is opened to disputes and work-stoppages. Some of the deadlocks reached are perhaps more apparent than real, neither side being desirous of going to extremes. They must be careful of developments getting beyond control, or contrary to their desires. This is a most inopportune time for industrial disputes, and the nation will trust the sunshine of commonsense will break through and dispel the present clouds. Labour leaders denounced strikes as foolish affairs, and they would be doing the workers and the country a real service, by casting their influence on the side of peace-pre-servation.