THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY). FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1890.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8991, 16 May 1890, Page 4

THE New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY).

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1890.

With, which «> is incorporated tht Weilinjto : ■ Independent, ettahlished 18i5, and the Ney Zealander.

, The correspondence we the railway publish elsewhere be- ■ liA.bo.hb. tween the Railway trouble. Commissioners and the

‘ ' Kailway employes reveals a very unsatisfactory state of affairs. A powerful labour organisation has been brought about and is evidently disposed to use force ruthlessly and senselessly. It will not listen to argument or consent to a conference, but insists upon the acceptance of its ultimatum under peril, in case of refusal, of bringing the railway traffic of the Colony to. a standstill. This amounts to something closely akin to conspiracy against the public welfare. The demands made by the railway employes seem to us to be eminently unreasonable in one respect—the attack upon boy labour. What the people .mean by senselessly persecuting their boys passes comprehension. A. wretched, contemptible whine about boy labour

bag become abominably common, | and ought to bring a bluah to the cheeks of the able - bodied men who utter it. If this line of con duct is persevered with New Zealand will be regarded as an object of scorn by her neighbours, unless they also subvert nature and, Saturn - like, .devour th;eir own offspring. The railway employes have gone to great extremes in the matter, for we are assured that out of a total staff of four thousand two hundred there are only about one hundred boys. Then again, the employes are unreasonable in not consenting to a conference with the Commissioners. This is really the worst of the unfortunate business—might is to be right, and that, it seems to us, is the idea that is catching hold of the proletariat. They find that the complacency of Parliament has made them masters of the situation, and masters they intend to he, exercising their own sweet wills at all hazards. We do not hesitate to say that this will have to be checked—Parliament must grapple with the subject, and legislate to prevent excesses of the kind. What is wanted are tribunals of arbitration, and making strikes illegal. Striking and boycotting are first cousins to Judge Lynch, and if reason and moderation are to hold sway they must be discouraged and prohibited If Parliament will not do this ; if it persists in permitting the unrestricted exercise of unthinking impulse stimulated by brutishness, it must be prepared to face anarchy. And more than this, the Colony will be rendered next to uninhabitable, and all who can will gird their loins and flee from it. We are glad to hear that the Railway Commissioners are going to make a stand, and believe they will be able to avert absolute paralysis of traffic. The lines will be kept open, but there will be great public loss and inconvenience if the railway employes make good their threat of going out on strike next Sunday. Elsewhere is published the explanation of Mr Edwards, General Secretary to the Railway Servants’, Society, which has been telegraphed from Christchurch. We hope it is correct, for then a strike will be the extreme alternative.