WEEKLY WHISPERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 26 September 1908, Page 2

WEEKLY WHISPERS.

// therms a holt in a 1 your coats, I redeye tent it ; A chiefs amangye takin' notes. And, faith, he'll preiit it. — Burns. That mass of anomalies : the Arbitration Act, has disclosed yet another, jither in itself 'or in relation to other measures. On Thursday the Wellington Magistrate gave a judgment in favour oi the Drivers' Union, which sought, to recover a fine of £10 inflicted by the Union on a member. Now it happened that the member had been ordered not to work for master bakers during the recent bakers' strike in Wellington, but he had "broken faith" and gone to work. THo Union tried Him at its* own tribunal and fined him £10, and now the Court upholds the Union's right to recover. The anomaly is in the fact that the bakers' strike was illegal; that the'Bakers' Union as a body was fined for encouraging, aiding, abetting, or promoting the strike; that presumably the individual members of the Union ■will have to find the amount of the fine in one way or aapther, "if not by baking, then by brewing." Now, the bakers' strike being illegal, how can a labour union insist on a man doing an illegal act by striking as the member fined was told to do! But lat bour laws, as interpreted by the Wellington Magistrate, over-ride common and statute law alike, by em- j powering a labour union to fine a man for refusing to do, or refusing to continue to do, that which is illegal. The unfortunate Fraser, the man who was fined, and all like him, are between the devil and the d«3p sea. If he declare to be lawabiding and refuse to strike, the union fines him, and can recover the fine at law. If he obey the union, break the law and strike, the Arbitration Act provides a fine, and if the Act were properly administered that also would be recovered at law. Whether the latter be on the individual or the union whose funds come from the individual, is beside the issue. The fact remains that under our precious heterogeneous mixture of laws a man can be fined for law-breaking and for law-abiding at one and the same time. How is it possible in these circumstances to know where we are? A recent cablegram from London i said that the cutting of the smaller sec- ,' tion of the great Cullinan diamond has been finished, and that the gem, which it is intended to insert in the King's sceptre, now weighs 330 carats, or 90 carats more than the Excelsior, the largest hitherto. The cutting of the larger section of the Cullinan will be finished about Christmas. It is intended for the Crown, and will weigh about 600 carats. According to expert evidence, the larger stone would realise £3,250,000 if placed on tha open market. The Cullinan diamond was discovered three years ago in the Premier mine, in the Transvaal, and was named after the chairman of the company, Mr T. M. Cullinan, now a member (Het Volk) of the Transvaal Assembly. It weighed 3025J carats, or 1.371b. avoirdupois, in its rough uncut state, and was about four inches in diameter. Roughly, it was about the size of an average woman's closed hand. Under the Transvaal mining law the Transvaal Government had a six-tenths interest in the stone, and the Parliament last year decided to present the gem to the King as a token of loyalty, and to commemorate the grant of responsible government to the colony. Despite vigorous opposition on the part of the Progressives, the Het Volk (Dutch represontative) Party had its way, winning on division by 42 votes to 19, and the diamond was presented to his Majesty on November 9th. Some time ago it was announced that the great stone had been cut into two beautiful white stones, one of which was to be placed in the King's crown and the other in his sceptre. • » • « • Extract from "The History of the Three Thousandth Century," published A.D. 10,008:— "By the beginning of this century the curious doctrines that began to find favour amongst the prehistoric nations, in about the year 1908, had borne their full fruit. A school of economists had arisen which taught that all labour the product of which did not supply some elementary necesity of human existence was worthless, and such labour only wasting the energies of th; people should be prohibited. A prominent professor of this creed was one Thomas Gradgrind, but his followers soon accused him of want of logic, because he spent money himself on a silk necktie, which in no way assisted to sustain life. The I whole of the money and labour devoted to the production of silk neckties was declared to be a work that tended to impoverish the community. Beginning at that point, theyelimrhated superfluous articles of wearing apparel one by one, until at last k was discovered that true economy was only found in the dress of the primitive savage. MOFUSSIMTE.