FEELING IN AUSTRALIA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 15 November 1913, Page 5

FEELING IN AUSTRALIA.

The Sydney correspondent of the Evening' Post says that in the Australian press the present happenings in the Dominion are pretty extensively dealt with as a very discouraging illustration of the readiness of unionists to repudiate their faith in industrial arbitration which was formerly acclaimed with enthusiasm as the accepted method of avoiding strikes. As New Zealand pioneered judicial arbitration when it legislated to establish a Court about twenty years ago, its experiences are decidedly disheartening. While one can hear on all sides wholesome denunciation of the repeated acts of serious violence which seem to be largely directed against those who have volunteered for service as special constables at Wellington and Auckland, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the extent t© which strikers and their genuine supporters have been guilty of shooting, stone-throwing, and other outrageous acts. However, while there is a disposition to give the actual strikers the lieiiefit of the doubt, it appears to be conceded that those who start a big industrial conflict cannot be quite absolved from responsibility for the deeds of violence which seem, unfortunately, to be inevitably incidental to such a conflict. Seeing that we are bound to be made participants in the trouble and its effects we shall, of course, receive with almost selfish pleasure news of progress towards a settlements '