THE POSITION AT WAIHI.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1445, 21 May 1912, Page 6

THE POSITION AT WAIHI.

TERRORISM, OR WHAT? CLEAR ACCOUNT BY AN EYE-WITNESS, COMPANY RESOLUTE. THE SOCIALISTS MARCHING ON THIN ICE.

(Bj Telegraph.-Spccial Correspondent.! Waihi, May 211. The companies made (heir last move when, immediakdy the .strike was declared, (hey ordered nil the ponies and the perishable machinery to be rai.-ed from below ground,.and the mines to be closed down. Now it is the union's move, and they have no move—it i,s « "stale mate."

Although, on the face of it, the struggle is merely one between two sections of workers who luivo different views about organisation, it has already become one between the companies and the Miners' Union. It will certainly be a long struggle, and (here are no sane people in Waihi who have any doubt as to who will win. ■So far as the companies are concerned the struggle is over. They are.by no'means perturbed by recent events, and if: is not too much- to say that the union have delivered themselves into the owners' hands. Trouble was expected next month in any case, and the hurrying of it on.a few wesk's earlier seems to have been rather a blunder in tactics on the part of the union. The story of the evolution of the Waihi Miners'.Union from u trade union into a Socialist organisation is much the same as can be written of the spread of Socialism in other similar bodies. A few years ago the Socialists were a small section generally regarded by other people in the community as mere holders of eccentric views, who were never likely to cause much trouble.

Gradually they grew in numbers, and spread their doctrines, until the community woke up to the fact that (hey were becoming a menace. Then steps were taken to overwhelm them. The- present Mayor was elected .some five years ago, up till which time he was working at the pithead, to combat the Socialist faction. Now, however, it is not easy to sav where he stands as to Socialism.. It is'stated, also that.the president of the Miners' Union waselccted as an enemy of the Socialists, .and now he is one of their leaders. . "Many Miners Have Long Withdrawn." Many of. the miners have long, withdrawn from active participation in the union's, affairs out of a feeling of dislike for the trend that things were taking, and the result has been that the union is dominated entirely by the Socialist element in it. They are not even now in a majority, but, somehow, they always succeed in stampeding a meeting, and carrying their point. A doubtful question is never submitted to a ballot—the voting is nlwavs open, and the noisiest party wins. It'is said freely enough (hat if (here had been n ballot on the proposal to strike it would never have been carried. Now that the strike is on, no one dares to say publicly that it has not been rightly ordained, but there ,are men who do complain most bitterly in private. They have wives and families and homes to keep, and idleness costs them more than they can afford to lose. Besides this (hey. have no patience with what the Socialists are pleased to term their "objective."

And yet there are some strange exceptions. You will find no complainers in the crowd which- is-cont.inunlly round the Miners' Union office, and. in that crowd, are all grades of workers.

The shift men in Waihi get onlv fair wages, but most of the mining work below is done by contract. The contractors work hard, and make a lot of money, but a contract abandoned at certain stages means serious loss, and a few of the keenest strikers are contractors, who have cheerfully thrown away the money which they should have earned in completing profitable contracts. Absolute Silence by Companies, Tho companies' representatives are keeping absolute silence about strike matters, and all Hint can be gathered as to their intentions comes in in an indirect way. All that is helping the union in the tight is the water coming into the mine, but, about the amount and rate of the inrush, no particulars are available. No officer of the company is al- : lowed even to take a sounding, and no I one is allowed to go dowu a shaft. It , is stated, however, that the water is ris- ' ing so slowly that it causes no anxiety, | and it will be three months fully before ; it rises to the sloping area where it can i do damage. I

There arc CO miles of drives in the Martha mine, and one officer is reported to have said that the company will let the mine fill to the brim rather than give in. Of course, the mine would never fall up, because, as the water ri'-es, it will find outlets in Ihe strata just as it has found inlets. This soakage factor cannot be assessed, but it must affect the water question very considerably. Whatever happens, tho water will take longer to lift than it takes to collect, and it will at least do some damage to timbering, of which, however, there is comparatively little in the Waihi mines.

It, is the general opinion, outside of union circles here, that the companies can afford to wait for an indefinite time, and that, when terms of settlement are agreed upon, they will ho the coaipany's terms. "Whole Town is Terrorised." To say that there is somo Utter feeling about tho strike is to put the. thing in mild terms. This is a miners' town. Much more than half the population are miners and their families, and the rest of the population speak of the trouble with bated breath, lest they be overheard. The whole town is terrorised with threats of bovcott. Members of the "senb union," as the strikers insist upon calling them, have beeu sent to Coventry, and driven out of their boardinghuuses bv fellow-boarders who were strikers. One old man of 75, kept on by the Junction Company as a watchman or something of the sort, had to leave a private hotel because the strikers made things uncomfortable. The union demonstrated outside the little shop which is kept by the sccretarv of the new union, and there are pickets "everywhere to see that there shall be no backsliding by disaffected strikers. , , But how the union hopes to succeed one cannot conceive. Once, before the Socialists and the Federation came, they had funds, but now the coders are empty. Here and there one can hear, too, that there have Iwen frequent levies charged for various objects, and the money is all gone. Thev hope for financial assistance from outside unions, but it is only reasonable to suppose that other unions in the Federation are in no better plight. They Brought Down Two Orators. All is the merest foolishness. They brought down from Auckland two Socialist orators. One a sleek, well-furnNlied gee-' tleman, well dressed, wearing a heavy gold watehguai'd, and n hat of (lie lale-t block, j He assured them Ihal they were bound to win, and discoursed of "solidarity." "scab- | bt-rv," and the like. i

'i'he other was ea*t in rougher mould, and. he talked of the "criminal capitalistic press," told the workers »o distrust it ; and said other things alxmt "solidarity," and "shoulder to shoulder," and eiieh stuff. It was, of course, all the merest "pup," which seems to be mistaken by its purveyors t'er the "stroii|; meat" necessary to harden the men up lor Hie coining light. There is the little difiieulty iibout lliecoal aupplv, but it is not likely i<i In- -prions. I'oai nill lint lie cut nil', In-i-nu-e thus." who would sillier most would 1.-:' the strikers themselves. 'J'lu's is an isolnled cumlililllilv, and oiip which will serve belter than anv other to illuslrale Hip fallacy under Hip Syndicalist idea. Here the union can put 110 s|rp>s on anylmdy without putting just as much more sire-- "n lliemfe|,W. As -lnlp.l already, il i« Hie union tn movA, and they hive made their last play in this strike gamft.

If this game goes on a strong man must .shudder to fhir.k what it may cause. Waihi is a young man's town. Seldom is a man past middle life to be met, and one of the first things which a visitor is g/ad to notice is the number of well-found hnppv children in the place. Mn'-t of the women, who took part in the strike procession the other day. were wheeling perambulators, and the others were leading playful little mites, who did not knowwhat all the fuss niiyht yet mean for them. They will be the innocent sufferers. It is a bad business this strike .

In one direction the strike will do good in enforcing a much-needed economy. Waihi is supported entirely by gold revenue, and money easily rome by is wasted with absurd prodigality. The band \i<<<(\ to get ,£l5O a year, the engineer JMOO, and the Mayor .£l5O, The, hospital was lavishly equipped, and in smaller things there was foolish waste of all sorts. All this is interrupted now, and it is possible that.it may never again he resinned, and that public money wilt be a little more judiciously spent hereabouts: