CITY EDITION. PUBLISHED AT 5 P.M. POLITICS AND THE STRIKE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10923, 12 November 1913, Page 6

CITY EDITION. PUBLISHED AT 5 P.M. POLITICS AND THE STRIKE.

A section of the Press is striving to draw a veil over the pnrt the politicians have played in connection with the strike, doubtless because they realise that our parliamentary leaders have, come very badly out of the ordeal. The debate which is reported in our columns to-day. serves to demonstrate tho ineptitude and resourcelessness of our political leaders in the face of a national crisis. A strong., magnetic and original character would have found in the present emergency great scope for his-singular gifts. Unhappily no such leader is available. During the early part of the struggle the "'representatives of the people"' were conspicuous by their silence. It seemed at first as though Parliament failed to realise the importance of the issues involved. When at last some idea of the seriousness of the situation began to permeate the political intelligence there was much scuttling up and down the backstairs and brea.thless conferences behind closed doors, but nothing practical was done to cope with the emergency. Eventually when the matter came before Parliament the position was not improved. Tho leader of the Opposition arose in the first instance to condemn the ill-advised aud provocative action of the authorities in ostentatiously parading a small number of special constables through' the streets of Wellington and allowing them to gallop promiscuously over an incensed populace. The only effect of this protest was to lead to an outburst of party recrimination. Some days elapsed before the strike question' was brought up "again, and in that instance, also., it was a case of words, idle words, with no practical resultant. Sir Joseph Ward submitted some tentative proposals for a settlement of the strike., but his well-meant advances met with so disheartening a response that it was quite evident that arbitration and conciliation was not a feature of the Government programme. The same farcical demeanour characterised parliamentary procedure last night. Sir Joseph Ward platitudinised, Mr Massey fumed and blustered, private members got in a word here and there, the Labour representatives were howled down, and matters were left precisely as they were. The politicians admitted that they were being looked to urgently for help, but all they succeeded in demonstrating was that they were rent of factional distractions and had no assistance to offer. And so matters are going from bad to worse. The trouble is spreading, manufactories are closing up, people are being thrown out of employment, individual traders are being ruined. Beyond calling out a-nd more or less using mounted specials to dispel the riots which they themselves have invoked, the Government has done, and will apparently do nothing. They are demonstrably behind the people who want to see the thing fought to a finish. They refuse to exert the authority which they alone possess to put a summary end to a ruinous impasse. The business people who are dependent upon stability for their livelihood look to them and plead with them in vain. And yet we are asked by their newspapers to regard them as the strong men who are dealing in a national emergency with courage and resource. It is the most lamentable spectacle that this country has ever witnessed.