ANXIOUS AND ACTIVE.

NZ Truth, Issue 353, 30 March 1912, Page 4

ANXIOUS AND ACTIVE.

«, . Is a General Strike Coming?

Stray persons with a gift of prophecy known to this widely- circulated newspa.per believe that there is a strenuous time industrially m front of the Dominion, and the people likely to be dependent on Labor for future supplies are storing up stocks like Jossph of old, who cornered the corn of ancient Egypt. The industrial earthquake may arrive shortly, or it may stop for a drink on the road, and pat m a belated appearance, but there is a firm belief that it is going to come. Canterbury might be taken as an example of the frugal provision for a rainy day. Coal is being simply poured into Lyttelton. With nothing unusual m the city to account for the invasion, colliers are steaming m between the moles m increasing numbers, and the waterside men are drawing comfortable cheques for overtime. The city coal merchants are laying m abnormal suppiiies, and everythingpoints to some portentous happening m the future. It is much the same with other commodities. Although the building permits recently issued are i\ot abnormal, and the building m prospect, is not phenomenal m extensiveness, the stocks of timber m Christchurch are being added to m a manner unjustified by the present moderate demand, 'and timber is still arriving. There ,is also feverish activity m manufacturing occupations, particularly m the clothing factories, where the hands are working overtime. This speeding-up and over r prb<hiction are the more remarkable beca&se things are quiet m the retail line, arid there is no immediate public demandfto justify the manufacturing activity. ♦ * « As a matter of fact, money is vary ' tight m Christchurch. The coin is not inebriated; it merely shows an indis- ; position to circulate; and its lethargy is largely due to the fact that it isn't there. When a country has been living on an insane borrowing policy for : many years, a sudden stoppage for the I elections, such as occurred last year, | must entail a shortage. Joseph Ward i raised his gigantic loan of six millons m- 1910 so that he could come befjre the- people without borrowing m 1311, but there is no provision for 1912, ai;d : as the country has ceased to exist m an honest business- like, way and is '■ saturated with the disease as the result of a long and continuous loan drunk, things will be bad if the country can't get a hair of the dog that inserted its teeth. As Joe remarked, the bottom will fall out of the country ii we don't borrow. It is chronic, and the man Isn't m sight who will have the courage to turn over a new leaf. * • ' * These instructive observations aro made, by the way, because an industrial''upheaval prolonged by the storage of commodities, will be a most momentous occurrence m a country depleted of coin, when the casual job will be a stranger m the community and the permanent ditto a mere engagement liable to be terminated at any moment. The steady federation of transport workers, waterside toilers ynd general laborers may end m a hash-up similar to the Queensland debacle, and it may never occur, but from present appearances the bosses are taking no chances, and even if nothing happens and the industrial earthquake is incapable of quaking with any degree of ferocity, there must still be a slack time ahead for the producer while accumulated stocks are dissipated. i