The Examiner, PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY. MONDAY, AUGUST 11. The Big Big D.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5485, 11 August 1919, Page 2

The Examiner, PUBLISHED MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, and FRIDAY. MONDAY, AUGUST 11. The Big Big D.

THE Rt. Hon. W. Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia, is always emphatic, though his utterances may not always be impressive. Speaking at a luncheon at Durban, on his way back to Australia from the Peace Conference, he referred to the labor unrest, and expressed his sympathy with those who were asking for more money for shorter hours of work. But he was quite clear upon the point that the only way to get better wages was to increase wealth. Greater production is the keynote to improved conditions. The idea implanted and fostered by extremists is to go slow so as to get more payi in other words to break a bottle in order to get more liquor out of it! When will labor realise how it is being fooled by such a pernicious doctrine ? But to revert to Mr Hughes. He said there were two classes who were enemies of society, the Bolsheviks and the Profiteers,and he said“ Damn them both I” He declined to speak in mealy mouthed platitudes upon an evil which was racking the world, and he declared his intention of fighting the Bolsheviks and the profiteers relentlessly. Unfortunately Mr Hughes’ promises when he is away from the seat of government, and is “on the loose” so to speak, do not square with his performances when he gets back to his official duties. Australia has had previous experience of Mr Hughes in this respect. He is like a roaring rampant lion when speaking to an audience remote from Australia, and he is as gentle as Shakespere’s sucking dove when face to face with the actual conditions. Why this change ? Simply because Mr Hughes in his official capacity has to regulate his actions and his words in accordance with the dictates of his party, and these may not always be in conformity with his personal ideas. We may see something of this sort of bowing down to the god of party on the part of our own Prime Minister now that he is back in his office once more. Undoubtedly production, and still more production in every industry is what New Zealand and Australia require. Our very existence depends upon it. Yet we are threatened with a party warfare when parliament meets, instead of a vigorous policy designed to meet the country’s needs. We have a form of Bolshevism in 'our midst, negativing our efforts at progress, and we also have the remorseless profiteer sucking the life blood out of the people. We have many other evils, all requiring immediate attention on the part of parliament. The country wants effective work, and not endless streams of inconsequential babble from our legislators. If the task of legislating to check the gross wrongs under which the country languishes is to be put aside while party conflict is indulged in, then the people will most emphatically echo Mr Hughes’ big, big, D.