The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, September 18, 1890.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 508, 18 September 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, September 18, 1890.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou ainx’st at tie thy country's, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

Any new proposal made in this country seems to immediately draw forth the scoffs and jeers of the unthinking, and unless the proposal be urged with great pertinacity the probability is that it will be relegated to obscurity until at some future time the idea again strikes some one with the resolution to make fully known its importance. In the House the other day Mr Seddon recommended that the Government consider ,whether it would not be advisable, with the object of putting an end to the monopoly and also to the present labor dfficulties, to purchase the Union Company’s fleet, and make the trade a State concern. Of course the gentleman was sneered at, and the proposal described in many ways that indicated marked contempt and a desire to evade consideration of the subject. We at once admit that there are difficulties in the consummation of such a scheme that to us seem insuperable, at least for years to come,-but the principle is the same as that already adopted by

the State, and it is only in a matter of degree that the details would differ. The State now manages the railways, post and telegraph, life insurance, public trust office, and has its marine department A coastal steam service is an actua necessity, and intercolonial trade is very important. No private company could expect to take up the running, except to make a profit out of it, and the people are ever between two dangers, a gigantic monopoly on the one hand and merciless competition on the other. It is because of a monopoly—a fair one, peihaps, when all things are considered—that New Zealand is now threatened with ruination through the labor troubles. If we cannot Mr Seddon’s suggestion it must be acknowledged that it is fairly entitled to that careful consideration which should be accorded to any scheme that is worthy of discussion by sensible men.

The labor trouble continues to get more serious in Australia. Each new step taken in the disarrangement of commerce in Australia should have a different effect jn. New Zealand, unless the leaders on the Labor side are unwilling to listen to the voice of reason. As the trouble intensifies there is the more urgent necessity for the New Zealand Unions to make an honorable withdrawal from the trouble. It must be evident to any man of average intelligence that the state of chaos now existing in New Zealand can only do harm to the Australian workmen, while a settlement in New Zealand might enable sub stantial moral and monetary support to be given to the strikers in Australia. So far as New Zealand is concerned the men must see plainly that the longer the present guerilla warfare is maintained the harder it will go with the laborers. Hopes have been held out that large monetary assistance would be given by the Unions tn England, but that hope does not seem likely to be realised, and for the sake of the laborers themselves we cannot say that we are at all sorry. A liberal response to the appeal would show gratitude for past assistance, but any man of an independent spirit must feel that it is a burning shame for those whose circum stances are so much better in this fair land to accept the charitable offerings of hundreds of poor wretches who find it difficult to provide themselves with the bare necessaries of life.

In our last issue we quoted some remarks made by the Wellington correspondent of the Napier News, to the effect that the Opposition were determined at all costs to prevent the passing of what are known as the “ Arthur clauses ” in the Native Land Laws Bill. And so history repeats itself. Mr Arthur himself has requested that word be sent to Gisborne that the Bill will probably be thrown out. He breaks the news so gently, too. Edwards stonewall, lateness of the session, etcetera, etcetera. Say the member for Waiapu is not shrewd after that. He omits altogether to inform us about the famous “ Arthur clauses.” This shows how a man ’ who is pleased to call himself an expert in native matters can be a bar to the very legislation which is most important to this district. What are known as the “ Arthur clauses ” are of the greatest importance to each one who has a stake in the district and desires to see it advance, but just because it happens that he is the moving spirit in the Bill, the clauses are condemned without time being taken to consider whether thev are not for the general good—indeed for the benefit of the whole colony. We deeply regret that the Opposition did not look more closely into the matter, and not obstruct a good cause merely because, believing the leader to be an interested party that requires watching, they deem the cause also to be bad. Still, upon whose shoulders must the blame really rest ?

The new and more dangerous phase which strike matters have assumed in Australia will naturally cause much anxiety as to whether order can be maintained under such conditions. The more intelligent men plainly see that disorder only injures their cause, but in such crises it is next to impossible to control idiotic individuals who will create trouble. The leading Radical paper in Australia counsels the men in a way that ought to have good effect, and is certainly reassuring. It goes on to say :—“ln New South Wales, at this moment, 50,000 able-bodied men, resolute in their purpose, look to the Trades and Labor Council for guidance. This is a mass too mighty for the police to cope with, and even the handful of military hirelings which, contrary to all democratic principle, the State maintains, would be impotent to control such a multitude. But there are over two hundred and fifty thousand more adult males in the colony whose inclinations and sympathies cannot be accurately gauged, and behind the police and the soldiers stands the portentious shadow of the armed might of the British Empire—the reserve forces of Law and Order in Australia. In short, Labor has nothing but calamity to expect should it come into violent conflict with the authorities.

The plot is thickening round the head of the well-known Willoughby Brassey, and his chequered career has now launched him in a sea of troubles, the outcome of which cannot be foreseen. First we hear of his filing his schedule in

bankruptcy before he had got his dis charge from a previous bankruptcy about which there was some trouble to face. Then he is committed for trial on a charge of false pretences, and the next blow is that of being Suspended from practising as a barrister or solicitor until the Appeal Court has decided whether or not his name should be erased from the roll. For some inscrutable reason a laxness has always been shown in dealing with an offender who happens to be a member of the legal profession, and one does not require a good memory to be able to cite many instances of members of the profession escaping punishment for offences less serious than those for which men in the lower walks of life would be set breaking stones. We confess,, too, that we cannot help feeling sympathy for Mr Brassey, with all his faults. It is a pitiable thing that a man endowed with so much ability should throw away all his chances in life—should so prostitute that ability with which he has been naturally gifted as to bring ruin upon himself and 'family. Those who cherish the bitterest feelings against him must acknowledge that he is a clever man in his profession, and that he would long since have risen to an affluent and honorable position in the ranks if he had but turned his natural gifts to proper account. Still it is urgently necessary that the profession should be kept as pure as can be managed with human institutions : the administration of justice requires to be closely guarded, and a great responsibility rests on the legal profession—a responsibility which the better class of men have often to acknowledge has been shamefully betrayed by individuals.

The Grey River Argus, in supporting the Labor cause during the present struggle, remarks :—Unthinking persons while deploring the present struggle are apt to rail at Unionists and bemoan the extreme length to which they have gone ; but few or none can point out where the line should be drawn. Others denounce boycotting in unmeasured terms, and think it should be made penal, that boycotting and intimidation are convertible terms. But is boycotting any worse than monopoly ? In the one case a man merely withholds his labor or patronage, as the case may be, and as he should have a perfect right to do, unless on conditions that meet with his approval. The other takes advantage of the power he has secured to exploit the public. A strike occurs at Newcastle, and straightway the coal-mine owners raise the price of coal permanently. Labor strikes occur, and the Union S.S. Company and Anchor Line raise freights to 50 per cent, and the public submit to it uncomplainingly. Let the associated labor unions demand 50 per cent upon their usual wages, and what a howl of indignation would ring throughout the colony 1 From which is the public likely to suffer most—boycotting or monopoly ? The first means only tern, porary inconvenience that forces a speedy adjustment ; but the other becomes a permanent infliction. It fastens itself on the colony as firmly as the Old Man of the Sea had Sinbad round the neck.