VENDETTA.

Observer, Volume XL, Issue 13, 29 November 1919, Page 3

VENDETTA.

Kill and Be Killed

ON the principle that "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed," human beings have, through the ages, taken "an eye for an eye," "a tooth for a tooth," and "a life for a life." The romantic Corsican vendetta, by Avhich the delight of handing doAvn the mortal squabble Avas no more vicious than the family feuds of Scotland or the United States, or the more modern and quite as savage "push laAv" of "the Rocks," under Avhich a murder mob selects a person to commit a murder, and the "game" is carried on from year to year until a special cemetery is necessary.

In all essentials, barring sudden death, the modern trade vendetta is as ruthless as the rock and bottle, the revolver or bludgeon, of the push. We have an example in Auckland, where the men Avho kill the meat and their working allies are fighting a vendetta Avith the men who own the meat. The rights or Avrongs of the squabble might be discussed in volumes—the only persons who get all Avrongs and no rights of any kind being the long-suffering public. The shopman and the slaughterman make a pass at the boss, and the stiletto simply sticks betAveen the ribs of the public. The man who oaviis the bullock, the man who buys it, the man who sells it (or refuses to sell it) in the shop, all tread the mere eater to pieces.

Don't for a moment suppose that any glean of philantrophy illumines the heart of the meat owner. Nobody gets on HIM. He will supply you Avith frozen meat as hard and useless as a rock, and charge you prime fresh meat prices for it. The public have no redress either against Gory Jim or his opulent boss. It has the stiletto of the vendetta embedded in it to the hilt all the time. It makes no demonstration; it waits patiently in a queue to buy meat at six times the price it is worth, while Gory Jim kicks up a shindy and Gory Jim's boss invents a neAV stiletto for the ribs of the people. What about it? Nothing! The one thing that is certain is that the masterfleshers are not going to be hurt in their banking accounts. When this meat matter is again squared up, and the fleshers are found to have made less than usual, no doubt the Government Avill take it out of the hide of the public by distributing an "equalisation" fund to the beef barons and mutton monarchs.' The public—oh, blow the public!