STRIKES IN NEW ZEALAND.

Northern Advocate, 4 June 1924, Page 5

STRIKES IN NEW ZEALAND.

CANADIAN COMMENT

The following -article, taken from the "Daily Province," published at Vancouver, of April L'ti, while it confuses Now Zealand and Australia in some details, shows that some interest is tak.'ti in New Zealand by our Canadian cousins:— There is scarcely any part of the Empire where strikes are less justifiable than in New Zealand. The predominating fai't which strikes a visitor to our sister Dominion is that poverhy is practically non-existent there, and that slum areas in the four principal cities of Wellington, Auckland, Chri itchurch and Dunedin are unknown. New Zealand possesses, perhaps, throe, millionaires all told, and large fortunes are the exception, not the rule. Nowhere within the Empire is wealth more evenly distributed than in New Zealand, and nowhere does the mono-

polist receive less encouragement. Squalor, rubbing shoulders with ostentatious and arrogant wealth, which is such a common sight in older countries as to bo regarded as almost the natural order of things, is something ourbrothers below the line do not understand and would not tolerate if they did.

A generation ago tilings were very different, for the land monopolist had the country in his grip and thought only in terms of sheep and wool. But. the late "Dick" Scddon changed all that. His progressive land tax split up the big estates, with the result that prosperous co-operative communities and pleasant, busy townships sprang up all over the islands where previous'y huge sheep runs had been the order of things. New Zealand's flourishing dairying industry is n direct result of the Seddon legislation. After Mr Seddon's death he was succeeded in the Premiership by Sir Joseph Ward, and latterly by Mr W. F. Massey, the present Premier. These statesmen have abstracted all that is best in the Socialitsic ideal and have put upon the Statute Book of the Dominion a great deal of legislation which, though loudly proclaimed at the time as certain to ruin the country, has completely justified itself. A minimum wage of twenty dollars a week for males, a comprehensive scheme of State insurance for everybody, wise laws, protecting the worker in his calling and making selfish exploitation by his employer impossible, maternity bonuses, widows' pensions on a liberal scale and an old-age pensions scheme on such generous linos th.\t old age has been robbed of half Its terrors, are but a few of the measures which have made New Zealand a happy land

to live in. But there is a communistic element in the country, chiefly self-imported from Australia, "who will be satisfied with nothing short of the Marxian doctrine of solo possession and operation by the proletariat of all the means of production, distribution and exchange. This element functions mainly among the coal miners of the West Coast of the South Island and is always stirring up strife. During the Great War , some of. these agitators tried to prevent the miners from producing the coal necessary for the transport, of troops, and only the prompt action of Mr MJassey, nipped the communistic effort in the bud. ' Latterly the Independent Workers of the World have been busy with their subversive propaganda amongst the Dominion's railwaymen, with tho.'result that the- latter, who are all civil servants, have made wage demands out of all proportion to the wagos generally enjoyed by other workers in the country. Their action is a direct challenge to the Government, and a surrender to their claims would be a surrender to communism. - >y» A cheerful spirit backed by will Sustains and heals thro' every ill. Complaint is never worth a dime, The gronchers suffer all the time. Cheer up! and don't expect the worst, .Ml hiinvnn ills come hard at first, When winter ailments vou endure, Promptly take Woods' Peppermint Cure. 3