The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1949 CLOSE DOWN AT NEWCASTLE

Wanganui Chronicle, 18 February 1949, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1949 CLOSE DOWN AT NEWCASTLE

yiiE decision to close the Newcastle Iron and Steel Works has been enforced upon the Broken Hill Proprietary Company. These works cannot operate without coal and because strikes* hold up production at three of the company’s mines the requisite coal is not forthcoming. The miners have, therefore, decreed that the steel workers shall go without their employment and without their wages. The steel workers are consequently not free men; they' can only work when the miners permit them to do so. But the damage goes further than that. Throughout the whole of Australia and New Zealand building operations will be held up, if not immediately, then in the near future, for want of iron and steel. Before engaging in this destructive action, destructive that is to the wellbeing of the community, it would be reasonable to assume that the coal miners had a very important grievance. Having resumed work after 24 days of holiday if is to be assumed that the men themselves would be anxious to replenish their bank accounts after the holiday spending, and that small things would not be allowed to stand in the way of the miners themselves recouping their holiday spendings. This should have been a sufficiently strong inducement for the miners to return to work with a will, but the present strike which causes so much damage to the workers in other fields of labour relates to the status of one man employed as an electric motor driver, who holds a certificate of efficiency from the Minister of Mines, but who, notwithstanding, is not acceptable to the men. It does appear that the cause of the strike is too small to merit such an upheaval. The employers could not challenge the engine-driver’s fitness, for it is established by the testimony of a competent authority. The man has a right as a citizen to engage in his chosen employment and it is to be questioned whether a man who has proved his own qualification for such employment is to be denied the inherent right to work for his living simply because a number of people object to his being employed in that particular direction or office. The tyranny of the many is no less tyranny and if it is allowed to be exercised in one direction it must be expected to be asserted in other directions. The Government of a country must protect all the citizens and particularly the individual when attacked by a mol), be that mob a hastily gathered crowd or a politically organised group. Unless the Government does this it ceases to merit the respect of the public, and this respect, being unmerited, will very soon disappear. When the New Zealand miners on the West Coast, in pursuance of their contest with the hotelkeepers over the price of a glass of the brown beverage, sent a few of their members “down the road,” they exceed their rightful function, and it is to be observed that the Government’s mana in New Zealand has gone down with avalanche speed since then. It. was the shrewdest blow that could have been aimed at the Government led by Mr. Fraser. This blow was not so intended by the miners: they believed that they were resisting an unwarranted effort at exploitation by the hotelkeepers. In “sending down the road” the men who exercised their legal right to buy a glass of beer and pay the legal price demanded, the union was supporting the need for solidarity in the ranks of the miners themselves. What was not observed was that the general public could see clearly that the Government was so weak that it could not protect the men who had done no legal wrong, but who had exercised a legal right. If the Government was weak in this it would be weak in other directions. Today the leaders of trades unions are frankly operating to bring as much harrassment to the Government “because it is a friendly Government,” and is not likely to have more than this year of life. To hasten the demise of a. friend by preventing him getting ixygen is hardly a friendly action, but that is the present policy of some trades union leaders. What a debacle! It could not have occurred had the public a respect for the Government and looked upon it as a shield against tyranny in the industrial field. The Government, having refused to accept that protective role, turned away from the support that would have been forthcoming from various sections of the public. In the case of the Broken Hill coalmining dispute, the New Zealand Government is in no position to ask the Government of New South Wales, nor the Commonwealth Government of Australia to take steps to bring the dispute to an end by legal means. So the miners of New South Wales hold up would be courting the answer: “Physician, heal thyself.” if it dare open its mouth. So the miners of New South Wales hold up the supply of iron and steel for Australia and New Zealand, they impose unemployment, overcrowding, disease, domestic disaster, homelessness for children, the delay of marriages, the restriction of families upon others and yet they continue to enjoy all the benefits of State services on equal terms with those who continue week in and week out. year in and year out, to do their social duties, pay their taxes and social security contributions and other contributions to the welfare of society. _ In a society where social security is sought to be achieved the engaging in an illegal strike is an act of sabotage not only of the industry in which the workers are engaged, but it is equally an act of sabotage against the whole fabric of society and paiticularly against social services. When an illegal strike occurs, therefore, the State would be justified in withdrawing from those engaged in such act of sabotage all those social services that can conveniently be withdrawn. The Government, having sufficient strength of character to take this action would win a large measure of support. It is not to be said what will happen m New South Wales in respect to the coalminers’ strike, but it can be said with confidence that the Government of New Zealand will take no action to protect the public from illegal action where it oecuis, but at the moment it does seem inclined to take action where illegal action has not occurred. This is the strange phenomenon of the political field of today. The Government is seeking to gam a fraudulent reputation for strength of purpose by opposing where there is no desire to sabotage the community effort and of tumjing a blind eye to each and every overt act against society. ° Australia and New Zealand require Governments that will assert the supremacy of Parliament as representative of all of the people and will resist the tyranny of sectional interests. Governments alone, however, can do little in this without the support of the public. Unless the public is prepared to accord full’support for a Cabinet of honest men who will serve them fearlessly they must expect to continue to be ruled by the spineless individuals who now constitute the Governments in both of these countries.