OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3154, 25 February 1911, Page 3

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

“NO SAVEE.” [Prom Our Special correspondent.] SYDNEY, Feb. 14, 1911. We are all laughing at the £'bowlsou t” of the officers of the Japanese -exploring ship, Kinan Alaru, at Wellington. When she arrived at the New .Zeaalnd jport, tire reporters went on • board as usual. But to their dismay .not a, soul on board would admit to .knowing a word of English. The only •communication possible was by signs. But the wily Japanese were laughing in their sleeves all the time at the discomfiture of the knights of the note-book. For, by some undiscovered fortuity one of the pressmen got a glimpse of the ship’s, logbook, and, behold. it was written in English! He asked for an explanation. But he could not find any one who would admit to knowing what he wanted, and lie was again thrown back upon signs, shrugs, bows, and facial and bodily contortions. The keeper of a newspaper kiosk on the wharf says that ait night the officers came ashore and purchased a number of English novels, magazines and newspapers. The deception therefore, seems to have been devoid of purpose, for if anything serious had been intended, they would never have “given away the show” in so simple a manner. It is set down as a practical joke, with more than a suspicion of contempt for the inquisitive Alaorilanders. A police coiirt episode is recalled by the story. A Chinese defendant had been fined 40s, but all the efforts of all the policemen failed to make him understand the obligation ■thereby cast upon him. ‘‘Let me try.” •said Charley Morgan, a well-known solicitor. “You’re fined £lO. John.” said' -the lawyer. ‘‘No, no, Misser Morgan, forty shilling.” promptly rejoined the culprit, and the desired object was thus achieved. THE LABOR CONFERENCE. The Labor Conference is closing its session in a blaze of anything but glory. It commenced its proceedings with grandiloquent professions that it was superior to Parliament, that it framed policies, and the only business of the Legislature (seeing that Labor is in a majority of one) is to carry that policy into effect.. Its procedure, however, has been little better than a parody on that of a serious deliberative gathering. It has been dominated throughout by the A.TV.IL, or as it used to be called, “the Shearers’ Union.” Those gentry have carried their passion for riding roughshod over everything and everybody who disagrees with them to s'ueh a pitch that many members of the Conference have risen in open revolt against them, and the meetings have consequently been marked by the grossest disorder. This is no more than poetic justice. Stump orators systematically inflame the insubordination of their hearers, their envy, and their hostility to settled order and government. In their own gathering these unlovely birds come home to roost. "When they- attempt to govern the revolt is against themselves. and they find that they have evoked malign forces which the- cannot control. All this foreshadows •what must inevitably happen when, or if, Labor gains the unquestioned ascendancy which it declares is within its gras-' At the instance of the A.AT .U. the Conference humiliated the State Attor-ney-General. and In so doing trampled under foot the basic Democratic principle “One vote, one value,” which he .sought to maintain. But what price Democracy in comparison with the belie st of the nomad union P Matters vitally affecting the liberties cf the people -of Australia were decided with closed doors, and in secret conclave. The glaring inconsistencies of the decisions are 100 numerous to particularise. Towards the close there, lias not even been the pretence of discussion. Revolutionary proposals have been adopted as soon as read. The chief use of the Conference has been as an object lesson. In that respect it lias been truly an eye-opener.

THE CHINESE FAMINE. The intelligence that two million people are in danger of dying of starvation in China, that children arc being sold for food, and that ail the other horrible concomitants of so terrible a calamity are in full force, has aroused some sympathy, though nothing near so much as the gallant action of Baker and Clarkeh in- rescuing some surf bathers who were in danger ci being earned out to sea. A few hundred pounds have been cabled from Now Zealand, and a few hundred more lmve been i nised here The Chinese Consul-General for New Zealand Mr. Ying Liang Hwang, is interesting himself in the matter, hut. by present appearances the aid from Australia will be only as a drop in the bucket. Most members of the Central China Famine Belief fund arc of opinion, that it is better to send breadstuffs than money, as the purchase of grain on the spot is calculated to still further raise prices, which are alxead- too high for the starving people. On the other hand it is pointed out that the money, by means of the cable, can he made ' immediately available, and that in. such desperate cases lie gives •twice who gives quickly. With us much (rood food such, as fruit and vegetables, f s being left to rot on the ground, as market-prices, owing to the honntnul ■season would not pav for carriage. A erreat deal of wheat, moreover, some m bags and some still in the car, has been spoilt and sprouted by the persistently wet weather of the last few weeks. There seems to be a screw loose m our arrangements, when there is a surplus o-oinp l to waste in one part of the woild, and hundreds of thousands perishing for '■want of it elsewhere.

an empty continent. Food is not the only commodity which ,wc possess in excess. Our great open spaces are fairly aching for population. Thrifty, industrious people like the CmxiesG, could do well for themselves <ttkl for xis at the same time if their labor .could be utilised . But the fiat has gone forth that, come what may, the importation of colored labor must be sternly forbidden. Undoubtedly the cause of humanity suffers. We are. told that one prominent cause of famines, and the accompanying pestilences, in China, is overcrowding, which compels the people to dwell in harts liable to floods and other visitations, which, when they come, leave them helpless. The population of Australia, on the other hand, is less than two persons to the square mile, and more than a third of these live In the cities and big towns., v lrtually we own an empty, continent. .But we are determined to keep it empty rather than make it available to the .suffering nations of the East. There ’ doesn’t seem to. be even a gammer as • yet of anv ethical obligation:. in this matter - On the contrary the feeling ’ ’ ' among tlie'mass of people towards the Chinese, our Indian fellow-subjects, and the Japanese is one of active hatred, rather ‘than of sympathy and desire to help. The ‘ ‘White Australia fetish holds the ground and. worth v or unworthy, it unquestionablv makes the Australian worse than unfeeling, this is- the principal reason why the response to the- Cliinese appeal is so inadequate -fo the need. Has not some one said that wg may possibly forgive those who • ■• .< f.;;» . ■ ,'■ *•. ■ • v

have injured us, but we never forgive those whom we have injured?

DAY LABOR

Contractors are objecting strongly to seme remains respecting day labor, made by Mr. Lance, one of tile HarborTrust Commissioners, at the tenth annual picnic of the employees of,that body. He said that the Commissioners had held firmly to the- principle of day labor. Parliament had given them full control over their employees and they were in just as good a position to do work economically as any contractor, and “it stood to reason” that they must have saved the contractors’ profit. The contractors simply laugh _at the statement. They declare that if all the items of expense that a contractor would have to provide for were properly debited to the work, it should be found that it had cost more to do it by day labor than by contract. Moreover, a contractor thinks himself fortunate if, when everything is paid, lie has for himself the wage of superintendence. And they point out moreover, that the power of dismissal, which the Commissioners employ, is fata] to the scheme of the Labor M.’sP., who wish to see every one employed by the Government at clay wages. If everyone is to be thus employed, any dismissals for laziness, insubordination, or incompetence would mean, not that the offender had. the responsibility of making his services acceptable to someone else, but that the Government would have tlio responsibility of paying him day wages. After all, there is no magic about day labor. It is all a. question of supervision and management. AYho is likely, on the face of it, to get the best results the man whose reputation and solvency depend upon the result or the average official, whose i, ay and position, except in cases of the grossest incompetence, are secure, whatever the result? If exceptional men can be found to exert themselves in the public interest as strenuously as the contractor exerts himself in his own, he, if he has the power of discharging wasters, and the courage to exercise it. may get as good results as the contractor. But those who know anything of the public service, know also that such men are exceptional and this is preeminently a. case in which the exception proves the rule. However, day labor is very popular with the laborers, and with the members of Parliament whom they return. Therefore, quite independently cf its economic results, day labor has come to stay. SYDNEY DEFENDED.

Incidentally Mr. Lance defended the port oi : Sydne-- against injurious comparisons that have recently been made with Melbourne. In Melbourne, he said, 'trie big steamers stayed a couple of days or so and then went on to Sydney or Adelaide. But Sydney is a great terminal port, where these same steamers remain to discharge "" anti load their cargo. The Commissioners have undoubtedly had many difficulties to contend with. In the first place there has been a phenomenal expansion in the volume of shipping using the port, and secondly there lias been a very rapid increase in the size of the steamers, which has necessitated the lengthenin'- of the wharves, as well as the building of new cues. Still, in spite of the very loud complaints which ore made whenever there is a little difficulty in finding a berth for an arrival .reouirements ore fairlv catered for, and new works are being pushed along with such expedition in five years’ time it is estimated that the wharf accommodation of the port will he doubled. That is not had for official work. For one HarborTrust that has done better many might be found that would have done worse, •dav labor” notwithstanding. Obvious-; • the Trust does not expect an- relief worth speaking of from the new coastal ports.