THE BLACKBALL TROUBLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2149, 26 March 1908, Page 2

THE BLACKBALL TROUBLE.

ASSISTANCE I-'UOM CHRISTCHURCH. Press Association. CIIIfISTCIIUROII, March 25. Tho Christchurch general laborers union last night voted £lO donation and £1 ner week as long as the strike lasts to the wives and children oi the Blackball miners.

“EMPLOYERS ‘LYING LOW.” (Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, March 25. A local employer, speaking to a “N.Z. Times” representative, referred to the Blackball strike as follows: “If the Court cannot make the Union pav a fine, the miners should be sued and fined, and if they won’t pay tho fines they should go to gaol, and if they go to gaol there will bo universal trouble. If the Court remains a court which simply panders to employees, then the employers will see that tho Arbitration Act is wiped off the Statute Book. Tho employers are 'lying low and saying nothing’ just now, but they will have a great deal to say hi a week or two, in fact, their time is coining.”

NO FURTHER DEVELOPMENT. Press Association.’ GREY-MOUTH, March 25.. There are no new developments in connection with strike matters at Blackball, and the statement that negotiations are proceeding for a settlement seems to have no foundation- as far as the local management is concerned. The manager, on being interviewed, states he has had no conference with the union for weeks, and can only account for the statement by the fact that the directors in Christchurch might be moving in that direction. There has -been no further meeting of the union, and matters remain unchanged.

A DELEGATE’S VIEWS.

Press Association. DUNEDIN, March 25. Mr. D. K. Pritchard, one of the delegates appointed by the Blackball Union to deliver addresses in various parts of tlie Dominion on the Blackball strike and what led up to it, arived in Dunedin this evening. When interviewed,- he said that the union would certainly be unanimous in sticking out for what it lias demanded. Tlie workers were determined not to go bat'k to work until they were conceded the half-hour for crib. He was also positive the men would go to gaol in preference to paying lines. Subscriptions received to date as the result of addresses amounted to just on £2OO. Mr. Pritchard pays his own expenses. He made a statement that from private information lie was possessed of, and which he was not in a position to divulge, he would not be surprised if he received a wire at any time that tlie strike was settled.