LAWLESSNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15915, 7 November 1913, Page 4

LAWLESSNESS AND RESPONSIBILITY.

A feature of the striko that must have impressed many people consists in the promptitude—it does not amount to dexterity—displayed by the Labour Federation leaders in repudiating responsibility for the wild and savage deeds perpetrated by a mob sympathetic to the strikers and presumably to a largo extent drawn from their ranks. The disgraceful scenes attendant on tho taking by the authorities of steps that were'considered necessary to safeguard tho operation of shipping racehorses on board the Maunganui at Wellington on Wednesday afternoon will possibly be attributed to various causes. Bnt only one cause appears to afford a suflicient explanation of an incident which was infinitely discreditable to the aggressive faction, tte Strike Committee had graciously given permission for the ship-

ping of the horses —though why it should be considered more necessary that racehorses should be carried across Cook Strait, however important to the success of the New Zealand Cup meeting their presence on the Riccarton racecourse may be, than that foodstuffs should be shipped, we are at a loss to understand—and the suggestion that the action of the mob was a demonstration of disapproval against operations which it resented is by no means convincing. It seems clear enough that the demonstration marked a deliberate seizure of an opportunity for an attack Upon the forces that represented the maintenance of law and order. The officials of the Federation of Labour may disclaim responsibility ad libitum, but their hypocritical attitude in posing as the apostles of peace, ere yet the sound of their vociferous appeals to the passions of their misguided followers has died away, has become only too familiar. If the Strike Committee has no control over the disreputable forces which may appear to strengthen temporarily its position, and by which it has undoubtedly counted upon profiting, so much the more does it stand discredited. Of course, the Federation of Labour is not going to express open approval of the dastardly conduct of the rioters whose brutal and cowardly tactics directed against the police must have brought home to many people a complete realisation of the sorb of thing that lies beneath the peaceful surface of every community of any size. It does not materially affect the position that a purely riff-raff section in Wellington such as is attracted to scenes of lawlessness, brutality, and worse may have associated itself with the situation. The leaders of the Federation cannot even show that they have attempted to preserve order. When the fighting on Wednesday was over, Mr Semple appeared on the scene, and after telling the mob that it was evident that the Government had " entered upon a policy of murder in which it was aided by hired assassins from the back-blocks," appealed to the strikers to do nothing which would give the authorities an excuse to retaliate. Advice of this character rt quires no comment. The Federation has sown the wind, and for the resultant whirlwind it is responsible, despite its official professions to the contrary. Of responsibility for the dastardly and criminal acts that have taken place it cannot be acquitted. It has, through the utterances of its orators, openly preached sedition and class warfare. By their own recent utterances its leaders may be

judged.

Mr Young, president of the Federation, has long since committed himself past redemption.' His statement about massing ten or fifteen thousand armed men " ready to protect themselves" against the police is likely to be remembered. "If a police constable uses his baton to you," he is reported to have said at the first mass meeting of strikers at the Basin Reserve, "give him one back, and if . one won't do it, make it a doubleheader. If we have got to fight the police force and the military it has got to be done in style and effectually. It is a very easy matter indeed." Subsequently Mr Young said, "If I have got to incite the multitude I will incite them, and in a proper manner." The president of the Federation has had the chance of viewing the results of his handiwork in the lawless scenes that have rendered it unsafe for women and children td visit certain quarters in Wellington. Moreover, if the Federation leaders had looked ahead to the prospect of their desiring to repudiate responsibility for anything unieemly that occurred, it is a pity that they allowed Mr Holland to figure so frequently as their spokesman. The following is a choice extract from the report of his address at Newtown Park on Sunday last. "He advised the navals present to remember, when they were ordered to shoot, where their class interests lay, and point their guns accord,ingly. The xailwaymen should not carry free labourers. Let the trains rot and rust. The strike was not made by the working classes, but by the master classes, who were pouring their armed hundreds into Wellington, not in the daylight, but like thieves in the night, coming utterly ashamed of the work they were undertaking. They sneaked in in the midnight hours,. but old grey-haired women came /out on the balconies to jeer at them as they passed." Readers of such tirades of abuse and misrepresentation can judge for themselves whether or not they are likely to discourage demonstrations such as the streets of Wellington have witnessed, even if road-metal and iron and other deadly missiles, courageously hurled from behind, are not specifically mentioned. Mr Holland's peroration, too, should be noted— " We are going to win, and by , we are going to do it no matter what means we are going to use." Small wonder is it if the decent section of the community is beginning to wonder how much longer blatant demagogues of this kind are to be allowed to enjoy the license which, with disastrous results to the peace of the country, has hitherto been accorded them. The affrays that have occurred at Wellington havo represented attempts to introduce the worst of tyrannies, that of mobrule, which it would bo the duty of any Government worthy of the name, in the interests of the whole community, to check and punish with firmness, and, if necessary, with severity.

The Maunganui, from Wellington, failed to connect with the first express for tho south yesterday moraing, and her mails came on to Dunedin by tho second express. Hie Maunganui left Lyttelton for Wellington again last night oil tho arrival of tho second express from tho south. She will ran to Lyttelton again this evening, leaving Wellington at 5 p.m., returning first thing to-morrow morning. In the evening 6ho will take her depariure from Wellington for-Syd-ney direct. Passengers desirous of proceeding through from the south will require to ieavo Dunedin by the second express this morning. A train will lcavo Christchurch at 7.55 a.m. on Saturday to enable passengers to board tho Maunganui.

' Tho Hon. J. R. Sinclair leaves Wellington by tho Maunganui to join tho 1?. and 0. steamer Medina, whioh sails from Sydaey on the 15feh iiist., and is duo in London on December 27. Tho Dominions Royal Commission sits in London on January 5 to t&ko further evidence and to consider an /interim report (tho second), which it is proposed to mako covering the visit to Australia and New Zealand. It is intended that tho members of tho commission shall leave for South Africa on February 7, and or completion of tho work there the commission will leturn to England and go thcnco to Canada, via Newfoundland. The arrangements mado •will permit of Mr Sinclair returning to Auckland from Vancouver, as tho intention is to oompleto tho Snal report while the inombcrs of tho commission are in Canada.

According to tlio latest Gazette, it ia provided that 15 minutes' physical instruction slmll ho giwn to all classes daily in the publio schools of the dominion, and also that breathing bxerciess shall bo taken at the end of each hour or caoh lesson period.

According to the Gazette (says a Press Association message), the total arrivals in New Zealand during October from oversea were 3863, as compared with 4562 in October, 1912. The departures totalled 1860, as compared with 2049 in October, 1912,

At a meeting of tho Master Butchers' Association last night it was decided to incrcaso the price of mutton and beef by id to Id per pound. The increase in the prico of cash goods will not bo so groat as that in the price of cash-on-delivcry and booked goods.

The Rev. A. Cameron is in receipt of a cheque for £600, an anonymous donation to the funds of the Presbyterian Social Service Association. The amouflt will go towards liquidating the debt on the orphanage properties, which will leave a total remaining indebtedness of about £1000.

Ihero was only a short sitting of the City Police Court yesterday morning, when Mr H. Y. Widdowscji, S..M, fined two first offenders 5s and 10a respectively, in default 24 hours' imprisonment. The latter offender did not appear, and his bail was confiscated.

"I am afraid our humanitarian legislation sometimes causes hardships where it is intended to help," said Mr F. V. Frazer, S.M., at the Auckland Polioe Court 011 Friday, when Kate lilien Woodruffe, of Waikumete, was charged with having practised as a midwife wliui she was not registered under the Midwwes Act. The prosecution was the sequel to the death of an infant at VVaikumetu on (Jotober 6, Mrs Woodruffe, 011 that occasion, having acted as nurse to the mother. Mrs Woodruffe pleaded not gunty, and Sub-inspector Johnstone asked lor a remand lor a week, 6tatiiig that it was alleged that Mrs Woodruii'e had been engaged sonio weeks beiore the birth of the child, and, therefore, did not act in an emergency. . Mr Haddow, for the defendant, said that the case was one of emergency, though Mrs Woodruffe had said sho would act if nobody else could be secured. The mother was ill very poor. circumstances, and the house in which sho lived had only two rooms and two beds, although there were eight people living in it. No professional nurse could be secured, and Mrs Woodruffe had acted out of kindness, and undoubtedly in an emergency. His Worship said that it was very unlikely that a trained nurse would go to such a place, and ho advised the subinspector to withdraw tho case. Mr Johnstone said that he would leave tho matter to his Worship, who thereupon dismissed tho case out of hand.

TJie eight of a big man and a little man in conflict always arouses the keenest interest of the onlookers, and such was the case in Manners street on Monday evening (says the New Zealand Times). A particularly tall man, taller than the constable who subsequently arre&ted him, was seen roughly handling an old man. A young fellow of diminutive proportions phickily intervened, and drew the unpleasant attentions of the assailant upon himself. Then another young man, somewhat larger than the first, also intervened. Ho endeavoured to make a peaceful agreement, and had his hat thrown across the street for his pains, followed by a blow. But the young man turned out to bo a surprise packet, and knocked the aggressive ono flat on the roadway, Whatever grain of sympathy, if any, the bully might have had from the crowd was irretrievably lost by his next move; jumping up, he kicked the game little pugilist in tho face. Then fists from all quarters landed on him, and shortly afterwards a preserver of law and order walked of! with the bruised assailant to the lock-up.

An application for a patent of a .very serviceable nature has been made by Mr C. Ankctoll, of Masterton. The patent applied for is that of an improved automatic fowl-feeder. Some of tho principal features of this machine are the labour and timesaving devices attached to it, these being very simple in construction and having no clockwork apparatus to get out of order. The automatic feeder can be so arranged that grain and mash can bo supplied to tho fowls in any required quantity, and for any length of time, the action of tho fowls in feeding maintaining tho supply. The machine is so arranged that should tho fowls require more feed some days than others, tho necessary supply is always available. Mr Anketell claims that fowls fed by this automatic process will derive more benefit from the food and maintain better health than those fed by hand.

A fortune awaits the pioneer of foxfarming in Australia, according to advioe6 received by the Victorian Minister for Agriculture (Mr Graham) from the Agent-general in London (Mr M'Bride). In support of liis optimistic view, Mr M'Bride enclosed a cutting from the Morning Post, showing ■what had been done in Canada and tho United States of America by tho, breeding of black and silver foxes. The wilds of Alaska are ransacked for foxes suitable for stud purposes, and Mr M'Bride hazards the opinion that the Australian variety, being of more noble proportions as regards size, might attract Canadian connoiseurs. During one season, 219 foxes, valued at £64,000, had been shipped from Alaska to the eastern provinces of Canada and tho States of America. One pair ot black foxes realised £2000. At present the difference in the value of the fur of the Australian fox and that which appeals to tho Canadian foxfarmer i 6 most marked.- But officers of the Agricultural Department are inclined to pin their faith to the dyer. "Properly dyed," said one of them, " the fur of the Australian fox can be made to look remarkably like the more expensive fox furs of Canada."

By an Order-in-Council, made last week, the importation of certain perfumed spirits and perfumery into Niue Island is prohibited, except under certain restrictions. A similar prohibition in regard to ecent was made some time ago for tho benefit of the natives of Rarotonga, bccause it was found that when "bush beer 11 drinking was stopped (the term doesn't at all indicate the strength of the liquor), tho quantity of scent imported took a sudden and significant jump. A Niue resident, who arrived at Auckland from the island on Sunday, told a Star representative that though Niue was a strictly "dry" island, tho natives were not in the habit of drinking cither " bush beer" or scent, and their only operations in tho way of procuring aloohol had been confined, until recently, to smuggling what whisky they could off visiting boats. He presumed that the prohibition had been secured by the Resident Commissioner (Mr Cornwall) in emulation of tho example of Rarotonga. Tho European residents of Niue, it appears, are allowed to import one case of whisky at a time for their own use, and may extract one bottle per week from the Government store until their supply is exhausted.

" Why don't they the blacks there alono?" said Dr Mjoberg, a Swedish scientist, who has just returned to Sydney from an expedition to Northern Queensland, in referring to tho establishment of a mission on Mornington Island,-in the Gulf of Carpentaria, where there is at present no white settlement, and whero the aborigines are living in an absolutely wild 6tato. "It is no good," ho continued, "trying to civilise them. They aro happy in their own way on Mornington Island, and why don't you leave them alone ? In any case, religion can't make them more moral, for in their wild state they aro tho most moral peoplo I know of. They aro about tho most in-; teresting peoplo left on the earth's surface, and they'ro not 60 low down on the scale of humanity as somo peoplo think, though they are in tho oldost etono ago. They probably came from Asia, and I account for their nomadic habits by the fact that they found tho north of Australia unsuitable for agriculture, but full of game, and so they developed in the direction of hunting and tracking, 'being, as regards the latter, tho most skilful race in the world. They had no competition, there was plenty of food everywhere, and there 'was no reason for them to settle down. I found in tho Kimberley district somo peculiar implements, made out of stone, and in Northern Queensland I came across evidence of beliefs, which eeem t-o point to an .Indian oriain."

Tho Zontralverband der Osterreichischen Stomatologen at Vienna has awarded a prize of 500 kronen (gold krono equal 103) to Professor H. P. Pickerill, of Otago University (Director of tho Dental School), in connection with his recent work on the treatment of cleft palate.

Tho English and American mails which arrived by the Willochra from San Francisco yesterday were despatched south last night by the Queen of the South. This vessel is expected to reaoh Lyttelton at 5 o'olock this evening, and a special train will carry the mails south, arriving in Dunedin about 2 a.m. to-morrow. Including tho North Island consignment, there are 119 bags for th© south.

September 17, Brooklands.—Mr Holden, on a B.S.A. and side-car, made a world's record, his speed being 50.56 miles per hour. High powered twins mean unnecessary expense, strain, and fatigue. Tho B.S.A. gives ample 1 ower for solo and side-car, as proved by its many successes.—W, Stuart Wilson and Co., Bond street, Dunc<Kn.— Advt.

H. Gunthorp, resident dentist, Baklutha, visits Milton, ICaitangata, and Owaka. Telephone 54.—Advt.

Tapestry carpet ends from 3« 6d, Brussels carpet ends from 6s lid, Axmmster carpet ends 8s 6d each; all li yards long.—Mollisons Ltd.—Advt,

Watson's _ No. 10 is a little dearer than most whiskies, but it is worth the money.— Advt,

Dr Hale's " Vin Sanguisreoommended by the medical faculty. Nutritive, stimulating, flesh-forming, and health restorer. 3s 6d bottle.—Wilkinson and Son.—Advt.

"Spring coughs and colds should be cut short at once." They're dangerous 1 Don't delay taking a few doses of the pleasanttasted "Benjamin Gum." It will soon fix you up. 1j 6d bottle. All chemists and storekeepers.—Advt.

A. R J Blakoley, dentist, Bank of Australasia, corner of Bond and Rattray streets (next Telegraph Office). Telephone 1859.— Advt.

Who is Peter Dick?— The moet reliable Watchmaker, Jeweller, and Certificated Consulting Optician, 490 Moray place (offPrincea street), Dunedin. Charges moderate.—Advt.