The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1919. RESTRICTION ON TRAVELLING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 5 August 1919, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1919. RESTRICTION ON TRAVELLING.

With the coming into operation of the new railway regulations, which permit of the carriage of "essential" passengers only, the general public will realise, as business people owing to the difficulty of transport already realise, something of the acute position in which the country finds itself on account of the shortage of hard coal for the railways. Whatever may be thought or said to the contrary, the Department is "up against it," to use an expressive vulgarity, because of the shortage of coal, and the figures given by Mr McViliy in answer to Mr Semple indicate plainly why the Government has been forced to place such drastic restrictions upon the community. Mr Semple has an object in trying to misrepresent the position, and the people sliould note what that object is. It is clear to anyone who thinks for a moment that protesting

and complaining against the present state of affairs will bring no relief, and the public will be far better occupied in thinking about the causes and a cure for them. The position is easily explainable when one remembers the great extent to which our railways have to rely upon Newcastle coal. Owing chiefly to the shipping strike on the other side of the Tasman, the Dominion has received considerably reduced supplies for its railways, and. until matters are settled with the Aus-1 tralian seamen we shall have to put up with the inconvenience. But there is a much more serious side to the matter, and that is the attitude of extreme sections of New Zealand Labor, who hope to benefit by the dislocation they have helped to bring about and are helping to continue. The position was set out recently very clearly and, in our opinion, truthfully by the Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times: "There is a very strong susoicion that the refusal of the Wel-

lington waterside workers to work the Briton and other steamers to-day is not based on the alleged reason that the ship came into port with influenza on board. It is indeed quite certain that the waterside workers have no such fear of influenza as they are represented to have. The suspicion is that they have other i-ery strong reasons fop not wishing things to go smoothly on the waterfront at present. It will be remembered that a few days ago the Minister in Charge of Coal Distribution made a statement of the whole position, in which he said that some 75,000 t6ns of coal were in sight 3 and that a good deal of coal was being brought from overseas. He did not want to give away the position, but he was almost compelled by force of public opinion to do so. General statements had been made of ten, but the public did not believe them. Many people do not believe yet that the Government is in such need of coal as the Ministers tell them. At any rate, the Minister did give away his plans to enemies and he had probably regretted ever since that he did so.' The Government was being so much embarrassed by the demands being made for more trains that the facts-had to be given, whatever the result was to be. One of the results was this stoppage of work at Wellington. Too much coal was being brought into New Zealand from overseas to suit the plans of the coal miners, for they are beaten as soon as the country can be made even partly independent of them. The waterside workers are linked up with the miners, and the part of the waterside workers is to make it difficult for the Government "to get so much coal by sea. In port here at present' is the Port Victor, which was to have gone to Newcastle after discharging to bring back a cargo of coal. The Briton is going to Newcastle also, and it is understood that she was to bring back coal. If these ships are delayed here for periods on frivolous pretexts it is quite possible that the Shipping Controller may order that no more overseas vessels shall be used for the carriage of coal for New Zealand. Only after some negotiations did the Shipping Controller consent in the first instance to the use of the ships in this work. In the end the waterside workers will let the ships away, and will probably unload the coal when they bring it back, but their end is at least partly achieved if the shipments are delayed." Of course, such methods are just what one would expect from men who tried their hardest to prevent this country taking its proper and honorable part in the great war. They were beaten by the strong support given to the Government by "the public a little over two years ago, when the miners found their "go slow" policy so unpopular. But they and theiv leaders "saved their skins," and from the time of the settlement of the "go slow strike" and the imprisonment for sedition of Mr Webb, they hav c planned to bring about national dislocation of transport, by a series of petty strikes at one mine after another and by other means. And they have to a degree succeeded. The object of the extremists is plainly that they hope to benefit by the present position and ultimately to gain control of the country. Meantime, the public is inclined to forget the past and toi lay the whole blame upon the Government. It may have been weakness on J the Government's part to allow the ex-1 tremists so much freedom of speech and ! action and the miners to strike when I and as often as they chose, but the time has come when the mass of the people should rally around the Government and demand that action be taken at once to suppress the extremist movement, which, shorn of all its trappings, aims at nothing short of Bolshevism. The longer the policy of drift ie permitted the greater will be the danger, and it is the public's duty if it prizes the country's progress and welfare to move definitely and make the Government take action. Once the present difficulty has been overcome it will be the Government's duty to do all it can to increase the production of coal from the New Zealand mines and secure the country against any possibility of such an unsatisfactory state of affairs again

arising