DRAW IT MILD, DAHN.

Free Lance, Volume XVIII, Issue 988, 11 June 1919, Page 8

DRAW IT MILD, DAHN.

The Fables of Mr. Fisher. TS7HAT time oui erstwhile "Dalm" * ? Fisher is not exhibiting his powers as a tennis player, and here let us congratulate the ex-New Zealander on the evidences of physical fitness he has recently shown at Home, he is delivering addresses under the auspices of the Empire Trade League or some such body which, so the story goes, allots him the by no means unsubstantial largesse of a thousand, a year for the said oratorical efforts. We wish the ex-member for Wellington Central a long tenure of his billet, but he really ought to be more careful about his facts when he refers to the industrial conditions in the land of his birth. In a recent address he delivered himself of a peculiarly rash and inaccurate statement about the prevalence of strikes in New Zealand. Whilst the Dominion, he is reported to have said, had the finest possible schedule of labour legislation there were more strikes in .New 'Zealand than in any other country in the world. * * * The Labour Department was not backward in knocking the stuffing out of this exaggeration. As a matter of fact New Zealand's record as a strike countrv has of late years been very low. During the war period the New Zealand workers behaved splendidly, in this respect of strikes at any rate, and Mr Fisher's statement is an undeserved reflection upon them. By this time no doubt the Labour Department's reply has found its way Home. But the trouble is that the official disclaimer never catches up after a false statement and Mr Fisher's slander—unintentional and .a mere piece of careless and rhetorical exaggeration though it may have been —is calculated to do the Dominion serious harm. "Dahn" should weigh liia platform words as carefully a a he times his tennis strokes.