Notes of the Day

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 3653, 14 October 1912, Page 4

Notes of the Day

the meeting at the

MEMORIAL.

The open-air meeting which wa> held at the instance of the General Laborers’ Union on Saturday evening to consider the stopping or work at the Napier end of the GisborneNapier railway appears to have resolved itself for the greater part into a fierce attack on the Government. No doubt the promoters of the gathering were entitled to discuss the matter in their own way; but it would, we think, have been more to the point if the various speakers had devoted their remarks more to the difficulties which present themselves in connection with the undertaking and less to the alleged shortcomings of the party which now holds the reins of Government. Put in a nutshell the position seems to have been that each of the participants in the discussion had already made up his mincl that the Government had not the best intentions in the world when it decided to stop the work! There was, then, it would naturally follow, no doubt but that the G-overnmeiit. in carrying out its decision, was not concerned in that it involved the loss of employment to a large number of workers! If such be not the position that was taken up it would he difficult to account for the remarkable assertion of Mr Bartlett that the Prime Minister took the portfolio of Labor, although he knew nothing about it; for the strained efforts of Mr Powell to try and show that what the Government really had in view was the complete abolition of the co-operative system; for the straight-out statement by Mr Coleman that the cessation of work was merely the result of a change of Government ; for the ridiculous suggestion by Mr Inglis that the work was stopped because some of those interested had shares in a shipping company doing business on the Coast ; or for the unjust insinuation by Mr Anderson that if the line were running through electorates represented only by Government members the work would not be hung up. Under the circumstances nothing will, of course, ehe achieved by the onslaught on ~ie Government, which, by tlie way, will no doubt explain in detail its views in regard to the work in the eagerly awaited Public "Works Statement."