OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 395, 3 December 1912, Page 7

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

NEARING THE END.

j The curious experiment of endeavoring to carry on the business of the Assembly under the control of a Speaker who does not enjoy the confidence of the members seems about to end in the confusion which it obviously courted. In a position so precarious, the Speaker seems to be afraid to allow the least expression of disapproval of his action, lest it should be the prelude to his downfall. Members are "named" for a hasty word, and ejected by the Sergeant-at-Arms when they protest. So long as this treatment was confined to members of the Opposition the Government seemed well content with it. But, naturally, it has gone from bad to worse, till last night several even of the supporters of tho Government revolted against Mr Willis's attempted assertion of supreme power, and unless the Premier had hurriedly adjourned the House there is no saying what might have happened. As it was, in a wrangle that lasted about an hour and a-half Mr Bruntnell, Mr Cohen, Mr Levy, and Mr Fallick were ejected; Mr Wood, Mr Gardiner, and Mr Moxham were "named"; and several Labor members, disgusted with the exhibition, declared that they would vote against the motion to support Mr Willis's ruling. That gentleman had, wound himself up to such a pitch that it really seemed as if every successive speaker, if he ventured to voice his real sentiments, would be "fired out" after the rest. By the irony of fate, the AttorneyGeneral [Mr Holman) also came under the ban. He ventured to say that he could understand the resentment of the Opposition. The remark was construed by the Speaker as a reflection on himself, and the Associate-Premier was warned accordingly. Very promptly he sheered round and pointed his guns towards the wicked Opposition. The origin of the acrimonious debate was an order by the Speaker at a previous sitting for the removal of Mr Perry. That member, nettled at being repeatedly "pulled up" in the course of his remarks, left the Chamber abruptly. The Speaker ordered the Sergeant-at-Arms to remove him. It is claimed, however, that as the member had already left the Chamber the order had no effect. When the Speaker left the chair, in order that the House might gr> into committee, Mr Perry returned to the Chamber. When the House met again yesterday Mr Perry was adjudged guilty of contempt for returning, and the debate which came to an end in the disorder mentioned was on the question whether he should be suspended for a week. The whole of the proceedings, it is needless to say, are the result of forcing into 'the Chair for party purposes of a member so obviously unsuited for the position. LABOR TROUBLES. Matters industrial are in a worse condition than usual. All pretence that if industrial legislation were conceded strikes could cease has been abandoned by some of the strongest of the unions. The employees of the Gas Company are taking a ballot, in flat defiance of the express warning of the Minister of Labor, on the question as to whether or not they shall strike. The ballot itself is an illegal act, and exposes those who are connected With it to imprisonment. The men simply snap their fingers at the law. We impose ferocious penalties on employ ere, shipmasters, and others, who are helpless, because they are in a minority. But it is impossible to enforce penalties against men who must be numbered by hundreds, or even thousands. The miners at a big northern colliery coolly cease work because they Avant to attend a meeting about a doctor ! The miners of the southern collieries, according to their secretary, Mr 1 Peter Bowling, are .only prevented from striking by the most strenuous efforts of that eminently pacific gentleman ! The Glebe Island slaughtermen, a number of whom arc being proceeded against for ceasing work in order to secure a variation of the award, refuse to go to work unless the proceedings are withdrawn ; and the supply of meat i6 curtailed accordingly. Other unions seem disposed to make common cause with the slaughtermen. The sole effect of industrial legislation, so far as strikes are concerned, has been to inform the men that they can cease work without any fear of their places being taken by others, the recognition of the unions standing in the way of this natural settlement of industrial difficulties. All this was predicted when compulsory arbitration nvis under discussion. But the temptation to whoop with the biggest crowd proved irresistible. The . voice of reason was drowned, and measures ' which violate the first principles, of natural justice found their way into the Statute Book. Legislators are finding just as much gratitude as they deserve — which is none at all — from the men whan they sought to benefit at the expense of others. THE PICTURE SHOWS. It is a. great pity that our impulses in the direction of reform seem to come only by fits and starts, not as the working-out of recognised and well-established principles, with which all concerned may know

that they must take account. Pictureshow proprietors, for instance, have hithertobeen allowed, to do just as they please. Seme of their exhibitions have been suggestive of lawlessness, violence, and nearly everything else that is undesirable. Suddenly the authorities wake up to the enormity of allowing the minds of the rising generation to be filled with rubbish of this kind, and they forthwith establish a censorship as much too strict as their former control was too lax. Now, contemptible • as many of these film pictures are, they cost a great deal of money. If threefourths of them are to be deemed inadmisj sible, there will not be enough to satisfy . the demand, on one hand, and those who j have purchased or contracted to take them will suffer heavy loss. Yet so long as they I conducted their business on the lines previously approved by the authorities, thev are entitled to -xpect that any change in tne administration of affairs* shall ba brought in with some consideration for their position. These same authorities arc virtually accomplices in any untoward developments that they may have suffered to arise, and that is a fact to Avhich duo weight ought to be accorded. If the situation is so urgent that the exhibition of these films must be stopped at any cost, thert^ those who have been encouraged to obtain and exhibit them should receive some compensation. At present, however, their complaints receive little attention. MR J. 0. WATSON. A verbal duel is proceeding in the papers between Mr J. C. Watson and Mr Beeby, the Minister of Lands and Labor. Labor administration under the Labor Government seems to be more distasteful lo a large section of unionists than was that of the Liberals. At anv rate, the 'Worked,' which is the subsidised organ of the A.W.A., made an attack on Mr Leeby, condemning his Labor policy as strongly as his administration of * the -Lands, and affirming, moreover, that on account of his opposition to the attempted encroachment on State rights contemplated by the Federal Government he. ought to leave the movement. The article, of course, was an oblique attack on the State Labor party as a whole. For if it is asserted that a Minister ought to quit the movement, it msans that his colleagues are guilty of a dereliction 01 duty for failing to expel him But Mr Beeby rejoined that the ' Worker * is not a representative Labor organ. It is controlled, he told us, by three "ex-es" — a disgruntled ex-Prime Minister, an ex-Liberal candidate and canvasser, and an ex-Socialist writer from Brisbane. Two of the "ex-es" seem disposed to accept the honors thus thrust upon them. Mr Watson, however, has been writing to protest, not against the distinction of the "ex," but against the charge that lie is "disgruntled." The Labor party, lie declares, have always treated him generously, and he has no cause to complain. But he, too, strongly maintains that anyone who is disposed to stand up for the rights of his State, as determined by the Federal Constitution, is out of place in the Labor movement. It is curious to note how, by degrees, a movement which started by appealing to the sense of justice of all classes now finds itself committed to a sectional movement in favor of a form of unification which, even from the point of view of its advocates, must be admitted to be of a very debatable character. It commenced byinviting the co-operation of all fair-minded men. Now it proposes to "drum out" all those who do not subscribe to a superlatively questionable shibboleth. November 19.