The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1916-12-22
RODERICK 0. MArHEsOs, EDITOR
The Tyranny of Labor

MURDER and arson are the weapons being
kVl used by the 81. w. w." in Australia to en-
force their detriands lfoT higher wages and shorter
hours Letters received from Sydney by the lat
est mail state that the coal strikes still Continue.
In consequence the electric light and gas plants
have closed and the city is unlighted at night.
Strict orders have been issued restricting the use
OF coal for household purposes, the government
taking the entire output of some of the mines for
merchant and war vessels, and the operation of
munition plants.
The strikers and their sympathizers have enter
ed upon campaign of terrorism and lawiessness
TO hurry a decision favorable to their inordinate
demands Policemen have been shot down in cold
blood; one recently as he sat at his typewriter in
his Office, by an assassin who fired through the
window. large number of big business houses
in Sydney have been burned by the strikers in
revenge because one of their leaders has been i'm
orisoned.
The victory of the Labor Party at the polls has
peen followed by extreme legislation, the redou-
bling OF taxes and restrictive measures generally
directed against the capitalistic and employing
classes. One such law confscates to the State all
profits in of seven per cent of the earnings
Of merchants and manufacturers. A merchant
who has suffered heavily states in recent CORE
spondence that, "the vote for no CONSUMPTION was
vote for the conscrp ton OF wealth. pure and
simple
The government wages board has fixed the COM
pensation of field laborers in the Queensland cane
fields at fifteen shillings and six pence per eight
hour day, equivalent of $3.50 per day Another
government board with powers quite plenpo-
Tertiary, has set the price the mills to receive
for their sugar at eighteen pounds or $8460
per ton. Other boards and commissions have de-
creed laws" edicts and restrictions, that the
lot of the planters is by no means happy one.
One result, it is said, will be that many thousand
acres of cane will go unharvested and unground
Strikers are everywhere the order of the day,
and the land is full of rowing "sun-downers," de-
manding high pay for little work. to be employ
ed on government works" at hours and wages
which they themselves would fix.
Sheep and cattle are very high in price and the
squatters would have little to complain of were
il not that their herds were decmated by the
drought when the war broke out. Since that time
the demands for wool, meat and hides have been so
heavy that the stocks have been still further re-
duced. Wool prices are abnormal The raising
of poultry is falling off on account OF the high
price OF grains although the millers complain that
they can find no satisfactory outlet for bran and
other mil-feeds.
In the cities all theaters, moving picture shows,
and places of amusement are closed, except for
daylight performances, this because there is a
shortage of fuel for operating the lighting plants.
Yet horse racing, sports and competitions con-
tinue full blast. Altogether the outlook in the
Antipodes is not very brilliant one, and our cor
respondent doubts whether there will be improve
ment so long as Labor Party is in the ascendency.