AUSTRALIA'S TROUBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20475, 29 January 1930, Page 15

AUSTRALIA'S TROUBLES.

INDUSTRIAL AGITATION*

COMPARISON WITH DOMINION.

CHECKING EXTRAVAGANCE* " I have been particularly impressed with the attitude of the people of New Zealand toward public questions and their work," said Mr. L. 0. Martin, a Nationalist member for the County electorate in the New South Wales Parliament, prior to his departure for Sydney by the Niagara yesterday after a short holiday visit to the Dominion.

" There appears to be an absence of the bitter agitation which exists in Australia," Mr. Martin said. " During my stay I have talked to labouring men and employers, and I have found that the angle of vision toward work is quite different from ours. In our own State we are passing through one of tho most troublesome times of our history. There has been a great deal of unemployment, common to the whole world, and tho financial condition last year showed increasing stringency. The trouble in the timber trade and among the coalminers also, has mado the year one of great difficulty.

Award Deliberately Flouted. A class of man has arisen who seems to live by influencing the minds of the workers concerning their conditions. The Arbitration Courts have been open to all, but during the timber strike the trade unionists deliberately flouted the award of the Court and entered upon a strike which was conducted with unparalleled ferocity. The doings of the 'basher gang' have left a stain on the movement which will not be easily removed. The law was defied, and men whoso sole offence was to work in accordance with tho law were waylaid in quiet localities by small gangs of ruffians, who kicked them into insensibility and in many cases inflicted permanent injury. It all ended in a complete defeat of the strikers." It was hard to see the end of the coal strike, but it was certain that the great mass of the people would stand resolutely behind tho Government in -seeing that law was observed. The economic situation in Australia was such that a serious curtailment of trading operations was inevitable. The income of the people would fall short of that of last year by £30,000,000, owing partly to the failure of tho wheat crop and the low prices of wool, as well as the smaller clip. The economic result of this was already apparent in every State, ana it was bringing both Government and people to the position of having to face realities.

Developing Primary Industries. ■"ln the end it will prove a blessing in disguise," Mr. Marun said. There has been too much importation of luxuries and too much spent in huge buildings in the capital cities, thereby diverting capital from the development of primary industries, upon which the prosperity of the people mainly dwells." He forecasted the return of the people to primary production, to the great advantage of Australia. For many years there had been a tendency for the most active and ambitious of country people to drift to Sydney, where the profits of labour were greater, the hours shorter and the conditions easier. That drift must now cease, since the cost of secondary production in Australia was too great to allow of export, and the home markets -were over-sup-plied. " Tfre farmer is now demanding equal conditions with the city worker in every respect, and this means that in the end the cities must give way," Mr. Martin said. " The result will be an increasing interest in primary production similar to that which took place in 1920. Australia will rise from her present trouble chastened and reformed, and there is no doubt as to her future prosperity."