THE BOLSHLVIK MENACE.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 6 May 1919, Page 4

THE BOLSHLVIK MENACE.

| ADDRESS BY MR POLSON. ! IMPHIuSS 1 ONS OF QUEENSLAND. I There was a good attendance of farmers at the Druids' Hall on Saturday afternoon, when Mr J. W. Poison, of Wanganui, delivered an address under the auspices of the 'local branch of the j Farmers' Union, on his impre.ssions of ! Queensland under .tho regime of the IjUliimr Government- and the highly undesirable state of the country generally ' as a result of the attitude of Labour j antf of the extremists in particular. Mr G. Tully, President of the A. and P. ! Association, occupied tho chair, and amongst those present were Mr W. H. I Field, M.P., Mr J. A. McLeavey, president of the Palmerston North branch of the Farmers' Union, Mr Tancreci Cooper, the Union organiser, and several visitors from Palmerston and lvairanga. ine Chairman, in introducing Mr Poison, said the local branch was fortunate in iiaving Mr Poison with them itiiat day, and ins remarks concerning Queensland would, bo well worth hearing- . QUEENSLAND AS IT IS. Mr I'olson said fie had the opportunity recently of paying an extended visit to Queensland and he took the opportiu nity also of studying the condition of the country under the Labour Government.Sinco his return to iNew Zealand .he had been induced' to yive his viewy | to the press, andis as a result had been j asked to give adtlresses in various parts ,of the district. Queensland was first a country of great possibilities, a place of great distances, and one which sho- | uld do all it could to attract tho man I with capital in order to assist tho de--1 velopm»nt of the country. | -Mr Poison then went on to describe parts of Queensland through which he passed, with the object of illustrating how, on account of the apathy and mismanagement of the Labour Government. the country was not progressing as it should. He referred to the curso of the prickly pear, and also stated that except over the mountains, there wer*e no formed roads at all in the State. There were no metalled thoroughfares; they simply tracks and in wet weather their condition could well be realised. There was land in Queensland capable of carrying a milch cow to the acre, besides young stock, but tho insufferable labour conditions were heading the country to disaster. It wa6 only after one had lived in Queensland for a while that one appreciated the seriousness of the situation. He instanced how farmers had to 'employ two shifts of men, each shift working eight hours a day. One of the troubles was thiit although the wages were not materially different the "go-slow" policy •had been widely introduced. In one freezing works (Swift's) which ho inspected the manager told him that at the beginning of the season the Union delegate appealed on the scene and gave arbitrary orders as to the staffing of the establishment. These the management dare not countermand or disobey. Ihe speaker gave several other •incidents .typical of the conditions in Queensland He cited the case of a dis. pute in tho town of Hughenden between the hotelkeepers and the.ir employees, where the Arbitration Court had made an award retrospective in its scope. This was opposed by the employers and a strike occurred, out of sympathy for which the railway employees in the vicinity also struck. A Minister of tho Crown arrived on the scene and said that there was such a thing as making rthe employers meet tho strikers in their demands. Wlfen asked if this was a itfireat, the Minister replied that they Mould take it as they liked, and at tho end the employers established the justice of their contention that the section [ of the award iin question could not be made retrospective and they went out. This was tile first time the employers 'had won since the Labour Government came into power. Another instance: In the Cairns district pome cane-cutters struck in the middle of the season for an extra 5s per day. The owner cut tho crop with the aid of friends and relatives. Tho truckers then struck and tlfe mill-owner could not therefore get his cane shifted. Accordingly, he had to give way to til© men's demands. The local union fined him £100, which he hadi to pay before the union would allow his cane to be lifted. At another siigar mill eight Japanetlj replaced 10 white men at one particular job. And they performed the same work as twice their number and gave every satisfaction. The state of affairs lie outlined was caused through the action of Labour in taking on itself to penalise employers and generally to make it as uncomfortable for them as possible. I Parsing on, Mr Poison described Queensland as

HOME OF THE I.W.W. MOVEMENT in Australia. A number of I.W.W men came to the town of Hiighendyu to assist in the strike. The loyal section of the community and llie tanners got so "fed up" with the sedition that the I.W.W. men were openly preaching in the stivets that they ran them out of town, after assaulting some of their number. The very next day, by special train, two Ministers of the Crown and a detachment cf police arrived 011 the scene. The Ministers refused to ho welcomed bv the eivie authorities and they stayed at the home of a prominent, member of the I.W.W. Tho strikers held a mass meeting at which a member of tho I.W.W. _ preached the most frightful sedition he had ever heard. And aroulid these agitators all thV time they f-poko was a gang of police who wei'j busy arresting every loyalist who attempted to prevent these rank disloyalists from speaking.

Continuing, Sir Poison said there wore many workers who deprecated this state of affairs, but they wert drowned by the clamour of the noisy section of Labour—the extremists—who swayed t'Ue Labour movement in Queensland'. The result mas that there was no national or public spirit In thw whole State. People showed a marked disinclination to take up freehold land, be- <' n-e 'lie Labour Government's taxation of it was so heavy. They preferred leasehold; land, because when the time was up they could the more readily pull ii]i .stakes and get out of it. All the big estates tveiV leasehold and the holders made little or 110 attempt to improve, the land.

.Describing the Bolshevik platform which he bad heard aimc-niced in Queensland th'e speaker said that under iU provisions no man in the ball that cny would have a vote, because employers- of labour and those whose income wr- derived from shares wore deprived of tin- right to vote. This was the platform which the Bolsheviks were enunciating in Queensland to-day from every cart-tail ill the country. That Bolshevism was coming to Xew Zealand unless we took great care was quite in evidence. TO 10.Ml!AT IHILSHHA'ISM. Mi- Poison said that to prevent any extreme section getting control in New Zealand, the Government must cut up the country into small .holding so that they would have a strong peasant population. and if necessary train the people to farming. Thcv must do away with the large holdings and prevent- aggregation. for tb'ev knew it was going on. ill spite of what was said to tbe contrary. The same principle of small holdings should also be applied to areas close to the towns. This was a policy that should ho followed for the settlement of our soldiers and h>e was sure it would settle a lot of unrest. Mr Poison advised the farmers to stand together and use their strength politically to further their own interests and at the siuiw time combat the extreme element of Labour which was becoming manifest in the country. (Hear, iie.nO. NEFI> FOR ORGANISATION. Air Field saidi ho was glad to be present and h'o felt it was his duty to lie present as their representative to bear Mr Poison. He had experience of Queensland some years ago when it was under a better st'* + ™ nf Oov-mriinnf Ho r:.:;eceu with Mr V • : :i i i tbe t:.-i ; '- : " at people ts tit thsm fur farm woik

Tonoliiii<r nn [''armors' Union, l;»luul Ik-;mi oi' i.niniiMi fur yours that t!i;~ I'nion should li;m> a politk-.nl phitfonn iind take nil ;u-lhv interest in polities. Ho had boon greatly struck by the Jack of farmers' repK -L-ntatives in Pnrliainont, vet the I a rmers produced ninetonths of the wealth of the country. Wo had always boon of opinion . that tlio farmers should have stroiifivr Parliamentary representation. There was need, for organisation in the face of the menace of Bolshevism and the farmers should niakb their power felt as a factor against it. Mr J. A. Mc-Leavey .-aid there was necessity for uniting the ranks cf the Union at the present time as never befoiO. The small man made a mistake in thinking that there ivas no place 111 the Union for him. This was delusion as his vote was equal to that of |the big man. It was in the vital interests of farmers to work together as ,a duty to themselves and to the country in the present labour unrest. THiE MEETING'S THANKS. Mr C. I. Harknoss said lie considered Mr Poison had hit the nail on the lioadl when he said they must oncourage the farming of small ail>as, and put ail end to large estates. The value of a large IK-nsant population was apparent and; must prove a valuable factor in the development of the country and as a counter move to the .Bolshevik danger. .Mr Poison's addivss, as providing an illustration of the conditions in Queensland, was a valuable one to the local farmers and the speaker bad pleasure <P; moving a hearty vote of thanks to him. The motion was -seconded by Mr W. 1. Lovelock and was carried with applause.