Meeting of Miners.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, 30 October 1914, Page 3

Meeting of Miners.

A mass meeting of miners was held in the Miners’ Union Hall on Saturday last when Mr. John Wesley presided over an attendance of some 200. The chairman explained that at a full and legally constituted meeting of the union a deputation consisting of Messrs Hooker, Morris. Curtis, Roth well and himself, had been appointed to wait upon the directors of the Taupiri Company in order that, under the new conditions arising from the compulsory use of the safety lamp, ail increase in the hewingrate and in the payment of truckers might be amicably discussed. The deputation had met the directors who accorded them a courteous reception, but no definite conclusion had been arrived at. Lately, they had learned from the daily papers that the members of the union executive, constituting themselves a deputation, had also met the directors. The men did not know the business on which this deputation had proceeded to Auckland, or the result of the interview. The deputation appointed by the men had thus been superseded, the present meeting having been called in order to show the position of the deputation elected by the union. Messrs Hooker and Morris, who followed, claimed that the executive should have consulted the general body before proceeding to Aucckland. As members o: the union they had a right to a voice on the question, while the deputation elected by the union should have been allowed to do what they had been asked and had consented to do. Mr Emery, secretary of the union, deprecated the attitude assumed by the previous speakers, and asserted that the executive had acted in the best interests of the men, and entirely for the welfare of the general body. After further discussion a resolution was unanimously carried recording an emphatic protest against the action of the executive of the union in ignoring the deputation appointed at a lull meeting of the union and in taking upon itself the responsibility of proceeding to Auckland as a deputation to the direct rs of the Taupiri Corn-