The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1911. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE?
In a recent issue of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” there appears a review of the political situation in New Zealand, which, in parts, is more than interesting, iuid deals with the situation from a wider standpoint than merely that of Party. 'The writer holds that when the present Government goes down it will be through the operation oi causes over which the Opposition lias had no sort of control whatever, and goes on to say that there is always the tendency of the people to seek fresh gods to take into account. There is also a tendency of ascendant parties to misread the barometer, to imagine that the sun will never set, to go to sleep. Proceeding on these lines he says: “Those tendencies
becomes very real after twenty years. I hen there is the failure ot legislation to consider—the effect of this failure upon the public mind and upon original policy. In the case of the Government now under discussion, its principal weakness has been displayed m resting upon its oars while seas were smooth. The country has been very prosperous, and the policy pur•mod by the Government has assisted in maintaining that prosperity. But there are always two questions of paramount importance in a democratic country—the land question and the labour problem. 'Twenty years ago the Government of , the day boldly: grappled with these problems, and by means of the Arbitration Act and the band lor Settlement Act entered upon i series of experiments which attract'd considerable attention from the outado world. For some years the remits were considered to have justified the experiments. There were no strikes m the country, settlement previously retarded by greedy monopolists proceeded apace, but during the last year
or two things arc being seen in a new light. Labour is beginning to view arbitration with grave mistrust, or, perhaps, it would he more accurate to say the stronger and better organised sections of .Labour are doing so. At lhe beginning the work of the courts was comparatively easy. There wengross evils in existence. Labour suffered many hardships. These were removed, but to-day Labour reaches out for more and still more, and the work of the courts becomes increasing?
difficult. Hence many unions dissatisfied with the courts are relying upon their organised strength to carry them through rather than upon arbitration. Patched up the Act no doubt will be. The system has not broken down, hut is unquestionably tottering. Among the bulk of the wage-earners there is no marked hostility to the- principle of arbitration ; but there is a strong feeling that, except in a few cases, iu results have been disappointing m a material sense. This may he due to exaggerated hopes, but the feeling is
there, and lias to bo reckoned with. Shortly put, Labour wants more than it gets, and is therefore! - uneasy. It
lias been said that tI:o system of arbitratioii would never survive a period of depression. Wo have yet to learn whether it can survive prosperitv. I n lean years the probability is that Labour would cling tenaciously to the system. In the years of plenty—with the national income expanding—it finds its ambitions baulked. Where the (iovernments have failed is, perhays, in not realising that industrial arbitration is hut a stop-gap, and that underlying the Labour question are grave economic problems which remain untouched by such a purely mechanical device as a court intent upon finding the lino of least resistance between certain groups of individuals. Ju what direction the Government should have moved may be left to the conjecture oi the reader. The question is, of course, greatly perplexing. I he point made here is that we have yet much to learn about the proper place of industrial arbitration in our social life, and that the Government of New Zealand is meeting with some reproach tor not doing something. What that something should bo is the question. Three years ago any candidate for Parliament who declared for repeal ol the Act would not have received a Labour vote. To-day such a declaration, if combined with an expression of ll'adieal views on other subjects, might Secure many votes from that quarter.”
STRATFORD A. AND P. SHOW. Seven hundred entries have been i eccived to date and the secretary is very busy at his office taking further entries from local exhibitors. Every mail arriving in Stratford increases the entry lists and before they close (day after th-morrow) it is confidently expected that a record will have been put up for the number of entries received. The cows engaged in the butter-fat competition were taken charge of yesterday and everything is in readiness for the proper conduct of this important event. At a meeting of the executive held last night, it was decided to accept the terms of the combined autionccrs for offering the stock exhibits to be sold the day after the show. The sale will lie well advertised and is undoubtedly a really good move on the part of the Association. When it becomes known to breeders and buyers that this sale will bo an annual one, the attendance of many of the foremost breeders and buyers throughout the Dominion will no doubt be secured.
WHAT D! D NOT HAPPEN. .Reports of meetings are generally accepted as records of the sayings and doings of the persons taking part in them, but latterly, in too many instances, they appear to be mere stories of what did not happen. The fault appears to be chiefly with the over-anxious political correspondent, who, wishful to put on a brave face, turns defeat into victory and loudly beats the drum. But it does not pay, and it does not please: people like to be served with something approaching the truth—even if it does not smack so much of the * “yellow,” as the pure invention might. The Hon. T. Mackenzie and- Mr J. B. Hino have both had to call attention to this sort ol thing of late, showing that the erring ones are not confined to any one side. Last night, at Tariki, Mr Hino termed one correspondent’s work “villainous”—and it certainly appears to deserve it. We can sympathise with the distracted editor in Ins anxiety to get in good and early and publish “hot stuff” and it is not always possible to probe every matter to the bottom before the imperative call of tiie press room for the last form is made: but wo would also urge upon the gentlemen who galvanise themselves into life as newspaper correspondents during an election campaign to kindly avoid too much flourish! THE DEADLY HAT PIN.
iiorlin is the first to take decided action and declare actual war against the dangerous hat pin. A few months ago the police issued warnings and appeals, but in spite of these, long, unprotected hatpins continued in use, with the result that serious accidents occurred in crowded trains and trams. So now strong measures are being taken. A fine of £25 was inflicted the other day on a woman whose hatpin injured a man seriously, and in addition to this she is responsible for damages up to £3OO. It does not seem to occur to anyone that the hatpin makers are responsible in a measure, though, of course, in sending out grosses of dangerous spikes they are but observing the law of supply and demand. One tries to remember just how women managed before they came into universal usage. But whatever existed then has been usurped by the modern hatpin. It is passing strange that the double-headed pin, or protector, never found much support amongst the legion of women who use hatpins. Many times have manufacturers tried to foist it on an unwilling market, but they would have none of it. One lady correspondent says it is a near contingency that legislation will regulate their adoption, but in the meantime women might do much to minimise the evil, if they would indulge in a little commonsense thinking. A pretty fad of the moment, which consists of a screw-on hatpin head, with half a dozen pins of assorted lengths, is. worth consideration, not alone for its utility value, but because it is possible, by having these pins so regulated, to reduce the risk of accident.
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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 21 November 1911, Page 4
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1,394The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1911. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE? Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 21 November 1911, Page 4
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