The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1909. THE STRIKE AT HUNTLY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 411, 21 January 1909, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 1909. THE STRIKE AT HUNTLY.

.;.'.'/. ■'■. '-. .——-—-» ——■ -■ Fou all its .'wonderful'skill in evading its duty to the public, and breaking its' trust as the administrator of the nation's la^vs,. thei .Government may yet. be forced by circumstances to bring the penal clauses of the Arbitration Act into operation before the trouble in'the mines is at an end. During the disturbances on the West. Coast that have been . temporarily ended by the; Government's arrangement, to misappropriate she public's cash in-order to pacify the miner.6, we contended .that the stoppage, of .;■ work must be either a strike or a lock-out... The Government, however, declared that the disturbance was neither the one nor the other, and the Arbitration Court was waived oh one" side as incompetent to deal with a peculiarly aggravated typo of exactly the situation which a ponderous mass of legislative machinory has been devised to bring within the arm of the Court. It was apparently nothing to the Government that its action meant oho of two things: either that the Act is a complete failure, or that, the Act being an efficient one, the Government is still.'so eager to' truckle' to Labour that it is ready once moro to repeal ihe-law of the land by Ministerial edict. Whether there was a strike or a lock-out was a question for, settlement by tho' Arbitration -Court., By refusing to act honestly and courageously, the Government has practically laid it down that a number of workers have only to make some oxotic demand of their employers', and to refuse to work unless the demand is granted, in order to strike without bringing themselves in conflict' with the Arbitration Act. Such is the intolerable situation that has arisen out of "tho Government's breach of its trust. Inthe '".casov of. .the Huntly strike, there exists no foothold for the sophistries on which the Government rests the" defence of its I action in connection with'the trouble on the. West Coast.

The directors of the Taupiri Company, which had that. its smployecs should undergo medical examination, agreed to resume work when the Government decided to accept risks without examination. In the meantime, however, four o£ tho omployeos' had Bubmitted to examination, and tho general body oi the

miners, flushed with triumph, decided to show their employers and the country generally that everybody must humble himself before trades-unionism. They accordingly refused to go to work on Friday, and invited their employers, in effect, to come and bo chastised. The men had no grievance: the day when Labour's _ activity was directed towards the amelioration of the worker's condition is long gono by. What they desired was tho humiliation of their employers, and they proposed in a spirit of wanton arrogance that the four "blacklegs," as they call them, should be disrated, as an example to the country of what occurs when Labour is offonded. The employers have refused,' for the present, to accept orders from the men, and the whole body of miners have gone on strike. The Government cannot possibly avoid putting the Arbitration Act in operation. 'Perhaps Dr. Finduy or Sik Joseph Ward will say that as tho work in the mine had been- - legally . suspended before , the men decided not to return to work, there could not have- boon a\ strike at all. But it is difficult to believe that the Government will rely upon tho public's acquiescence in such a contemptible argument as that. The Act is clear enough, since a strike is defined as "tho act of any number of workers who are or have been in tho employment, etc. ; . i. in discontinuing that employment . . . or in refusing or failing after such discontinuance to resume or return to their employment, the said . . . refusalor failure being due to any. combination . . . with intent to compel . , .any such' employer to ... . comply with any demands made by the said or nny other workers."

. The men themselves, however, are fully aware of the character of their refusal to resume work. We,are told that the president and secretary of the Miners' Federation have both "stated that, they pointed out that, whilst the men were fighting for a principle affecting all the workers in the Dominion, they should re-; member the position in which they might bo placed in the'near future." In other words, the miners have thrown down the gage, to the Government, and tho country will watch with the keenest interest for the Government's, reply. It does not appear that the initiation of proceedings liesin the hands of anyone but a Government official, and if the Government • refuses, for. party reasons, to take any action, there is no means of redress.open to the mine-owners, and no means available for the satisfaction of .justice. We sincerely trust that the men. will abate their domands, and that the. Government will.;in.any case take against.them. What is mosjj.'io against is.that the mine-owners,,.by,.a'urr rendering their position, will add 'fresh fuel;to the fire of Labour's lawless" arrogance. , ■.'•'.'.'.■ ' ;;.;;.:;