MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1908. THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9210, 13 April 1908, Page 2

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1908. THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

The country is getting very tired of the Blackball strike, and it is getting even more tired of Mr Pritchard and the other irresponsible agitators who have been fostering it end encouraging the men to defy the law and bring unending trouble upon themselves. The recent disclosures of the suppression by the Executive of the Union of important correspondence, which might probably have brought the difficulty to a doe© had it been submitted to the members of the Union itself, is a significant commentary \ upon the way yi which the strike has been nursed for selfish reasons by its leaders. The excuse offered by the Executive for the suppression of the correspondence is that as it did not come from an official source, action along the lines it suggested had no guarantee of permanency, and that therefore it was idle and useless to make the communications known. Side by side with this Mr Pritchard, the Union's delegate, publishes a hysterical shriek at the insulting behaviour of Mr Millar, the Minister of Labour, who snubbed him and snubbed the Union, and snubbed the cause of labour and snubbed fhe whole universe because he very properly declined to grant Mr Pritchard an interview when that gentleman approached him in an unofficial capacity with a suggestion tiiat he and the Minister should privately discuss the strike, and settle it offhand. Apparently Mr Pritchard waits to give all the sauce to the gander, and keep none for thVgoose and the other geese. If the Minister of Labour were to grant interviews of this character to every crank who sought him out in his private capacity his work would be never-ending, and Mr Millar, in t3iis instance, had the additional justification that the mail who was seeking an interview had just finished stumping the country in the cause of law-breaking, and. delivering himself of some very questionable personalities concerning the Minister himself. Mr Millar would have consulted neither his own. dignity nor the dignity of the Cabinet had he accepted this ofi-hand invitation from Mr Pritchard to settle the difficulty over a bottle of lemonade. The Government lias acted and is continuing to act with tho ui>most forbearance where tho strikers are concerned. It lias time and again announced its absolute determination to see the matter through, and while it is holding its hand for the moment in the light of -a possible settlement, tho men may rest assured that if that settlement does not come soon the full machinery of the law will be speedily put into operation to collect tho fine imposed. Tho strikers are daily losing sympathy by their illogical and obstinate refusal to end the strike, and while- Bom© of this obstinacy may have been due to ignorance of the proper position, owing to the suppression of important information by the Executive, now that the Executive's methods have been made clear to the men they should take early steps to settle the matter for themselves. Tho Tyneside miners have already withdrawn their support from the strike, and other Unions are threatening to follow the same course. The hand-writing is very clear upon the wall, and the Blackball Union will have only itself to blarao if it flounders still further into tho quagmire into wliich it has been led by Mr Hickey and Mr Pritchard.