LABOUR TROUBLES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 805, 29 January 1910, Page 3

LABOUR TROUBLES.

STRUCK SENTENCES

Sydney, January 27

Convictions were recorded to-day in the Industrial Court (Judge Rogers presiding) in the cases against the four strike leaders, Peter Bowling, Daniel Hutton, William O'Connor, and James Butler, charged under the new Industrial Disputes Act with takingpart in a strike meeting at Bulli, in the southern district.

Bowling was sentenced to twelve mouths’ imprisonment with hard labour (the maximum under the Act), and the other three were each sentenced to eight months. The informations were laid under divisions 1 and 2 of the Justices Act, 1902, the Industrial Disputes Act, 1908, and the Industrial Disputes (Amendment) Act, 1909, by Sub-Inspector Bradley. They set forth that on December 29 last, Bowling and the other three defendants, while at Bulli, took part in a meeting of more than two perous, assembled for the porpose of aiding in the continuance of a strike, then in existence, amongst the coal-miners and others, theretofore employed in the southern collieries of the State, they having reasonable grounds to believe that the probable consequences of the continuance of the strike would be to deprive the public to a great extent of the supply of a necessary commodity, to wit, coal. The charges were laid separately. Bowling, in his address to the Court, said that the Old Strike Congress was dissolved, leaving 20,000 men without leaders. The new Congress was formed with the intention of bringing about peace as rapidly as possible, consistent with the maintenance of unionism. It was the disaffection that crept into the counsels of the leaders that led him to abandon the hopes ol victor} 7 he had entertained up to that point. He then recognised that defeat was inevitable, but that it should be accepted by unionists as a united body, and not in scattered sections. He had advocated peace and a speedy settlement at the meeting at Bulli. He did not ask for any clemency. If he were found guilty, he had been guilty innocently ; if he were imprisoned, he hoped that the men who trusted him would not petition for clemency for him. He would be no friend of his (the speaker’s) who asked for clemency from a Government that had made a criminal of him.

Bowling spoke for an hour and a half.

Judge Rogers, in summing up, said that the southern miners had no quarrel with their employers, which was not capable of adjustment. When the men struck on a quarrel which was not theirs, was it not uuionism gone mad ? Moreover, was it ( ? not) actually suggested that all other unions handling coal should come out ? Was that not tyrauuy ? What had the other innocent workers of the community done that they should be deprived of a necessary commodity ? What of poor people who would thus be unable to get coal ? The country had been made a reproach among the nations because of the refusal to allow coal to be hewn and to go forth. The Government had exercised all the forbearance possible in attempting to arrange a settlement. The Act (Industrial Disputes Act) had been called the Coercion Act, but any kind of Act—call it coercion or anything else—which was calculated to bring about peace was to be welcomed. The defendants had proceeded in defiance of the law. He had no doubt that in their private lives they were as good as men could be. He supposed that some might say it was a crime, but this was not a crime, though the defendants had been guilty of a breach of the section of the Act in a defiant manner ! He could not help noticing and admiring Mr Bowling's natural ability, which had raised him to a position of trust ; but the information had been proved against him aud the other defendants. There was a tearful leavetaking between the prisoners and their wives.

The crowd cheered the men as they left the Court. Svdnkv, Jan. 28.

The Sydney Labour Council passed a resolution of sympathy with the imprisoned leaders and arranged to make provision for their wives and families. The annual conference of the Political Labour League also expressed sympathy with the imprisoned men.