The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1909. THE NEW SOUTH WALES STRIKE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2679, 8 December 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8,1909. THE NEW SOUTH WALES STRIKE.

We should imagine that the public of the Commonwealth will support the New South Wales Government in the action it has taken over the miners’ strike. They have arrested the leaders, who will presumably be tried under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. Under this measure any striker or anyone who has abetted a strike is liable to a fine not exceeding one thousand pounds or in default 5 not more than two months’ imprisonment. This being the law of the country one would have expected that the Premier, Mr. Wade, would have taken the step he has now ventured upon at an earlier date. So long as large bodies of workmen are permitted to take combined action and at a moment’s notice for any grievance, big or little, real or fancied,dislocate an industry, so long will the community, as a whole, be without security for its commercial welfare. Theoretically, it is scarcely fair to prevent a body of workr./-rn from fighting an obstinate employer with the best weapons obtainable, and if the results of the conflict operated on the principals only, strikes could scarcely be interfered with. The complexity of modern commerce, however, is so great, and the interdependence of one branch of industry upon the other so marked, that a sudden cessation of work in one necessarily affects many others. In the present case the stoppage of the mining industry in Newcastle has produced something akin to chaos throughout New South Wales, and thousands of people who are in no way concerned with the dispute will be ruined because the Newcastle miners and their employers failed to settle their differences in an amicable manner. Practically every person in the State will be more or less injured by the * present strike, and it stands to reason, therefore, that the law.mus<t be invoked to make striking a penal offence. Of course, it does not follow that the arrest of a, few of the ringleaders will end the trouble. *lt may have the effect hoped, and by showing the large body of miners that the Governm-ut is determined at all costs to uoheid the law, may persuade them to resume work, pending a settlement of their claim by a properly-constituted tnl.uiir al.. On the other hand/ it may urovoke them to still,more extreme measuies, which in this case would probably mean the declaration of a general strike amongst all unionists. This step, it carried out, would scarcely help the strikers, but it would inflict damage to the community compared with which the present trouble is coinpar'.tivel.v insignificant. Moreover, the interference of the Government, though per'ei fly legitimate, is certain to be resented by the strikers, and it may have the effect of inciting the more reckless of their number to acts of violence. Altogether, the situation may be described as alarmingly critical, and we shall all be glad to see the next few days pass off without any fresh complications having been added to the great trial that the oldest State of the Commonwealth is passing through;