Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1907 BURNING UP PRODUCE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8943, 18 December 1907, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established Third of a Century.] WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1907 BURNING UP PRODUCE.

Nero fiddles while Rome burns! Yesterday wo read of a pleasing function at which the Liberal-Labour Federation banqueted the Premier, and we also read of evidence in the South Island which tended to show that farmers would go out of wheat-grow-ing altogether if the demands of the labourers' union were given effect to. They would have no option, as wheatgrowing could not be carried on under such conditions with hired labour. As showing the decrease in wheatgrowing of recent years, one of the farmers' representatives said that while in 1898 there were Yd million busheis grown in the Dominion, there were only million bushels last year. The unions may become the inceudiarists of New Zealand, and if not held in check, will destroy one industry after another throughout the laud. Is it good for New Zealand that its yield of wheat should have fallen in less than ten years by more than one half? Is it good for Nesv Zealand that the comparatively small area still under crop should go out of cultivation? This is what the Unions are bringing about, and this is what the Liberal-Labourites of the cities are approving, and this approval is apparently endorsed by Sir Joseph Ward. The Unions desire to establish in this Dominion a national standard wage. This wage will be applicable to all human beings working in the community, and will take no account of local conditions or of good times or of bad ones. It upsets all economic laws; and impartial outside observers declare that it is absolutely futile and must break down. Besides fixing a national wage, the Unions desire to fix such conditions of employment as will slowly but surely strangle industries. Already in New Zealand many employers have had to surrender their businesses because they were unable to conduct them profitably in good times.. In bad times there will be a stampede of employers, and thousands of workers will be thrown out of employment. When this occurs Nero will probably stop fiddling,

The first touch of hard times is now at hand for farmers, but it may not be so for the colony as a whole. As soon as it affects the Dominion, two points will be noted; first a decreased output of produce and secondly ineffioient labour. These two conditions will intensify any trouble which will have to be faced. Just now we are living in the proverbial "fools' paradise," but the lease of this desirable habitation is very nearly up. The Unions are forcing rigid awards on the community, which will be found to injure both the employer and the employee. The real employer is the consumer, and when he kicks, as kick he will, he will bring Unions and everybody else to their senses. When he says, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no further!" he will be obeyed, because when roused he possesses the power to enforce his will. It may be politio of the Premier now to sit on a rail and fiddle, but he has to jump clown on the ouo side or on the other. He has to take part with the Unions in their incendiary campaign, or else keep ihem in cheok. Was it ever intended that thousands of farmers should be called into Court and

compelled to work their farms under impossible conditions? This was not the intention of the Arbitration Act, and if the Premier had plainly told the Unions that they wore riding the Act to death, instead of saying that they wore moulding public opinion, he would- have been doing his doty. In view of the approaching general election, it may be necessary for the Premier and for the Unions to rub noses together, but there will have to be a clear understanding as to the terms of the particular bargain that is likely to be now in the making, and as to the extent to which it will imperil the industries of New Zealand. Of course the Liberal and Labour Federation is a body which represents the Unions of New Zealand. It is simply the Unions under another name. Wo have a right to know whether the present Ministry, which includes some of the ablest public men in the colony, is going to play the part of au incendiary iv order to carry the general election.