WAIKATO MINERS' UNION.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 12

WAIKATO MINERS' UNION.

The Annual Meeting.

The annual meeting of the W-aikato Miners' Union was held in the Masonic Mall on the 15th inst. President J. Fulton was in the chair. After openk»g the meeting, Mr. Fulton vacated the presidential chair, and the newly-elect-ed president (T. H. Marshall) took up the duties. In his presidential address, Marshall #poke upon "Support, Strength and Boiidarity." He briefly reviewed the fcjst-oi y of the Union, depicting the various achievements and defined a line of action for the future. Special reference was made to the - retiring president, who had held office for a number of years, and to E. Grundy, the advising and guiding counsel of the past, who with the rank and file, had mriade it possible for the Waikato Miners 8 Union to be- one of, if not the foremost in the Dominion. To those •who had played a prominent part in New Zealand working-class historymaking, doing the pioneer work, the meeting accorded a hearty vote of thanks by acclamation. The meeting expressed itself hy.resolution highly satisfied with ''The Maoriland Worker," "the life-blood of the •workers.*' A resolution was also carried, with a sprinkling of dissentients, "That the "Waikato Miners' Union co-operate with Ihe Hxintly Socialist Party in endeav©uring to engage Scott Bennett to address a meeting in Huntly before leaving the Dominion. , ' The miners 'sports and carnival were Arranged to take place in January. A committee of 15 was appointed to make the necessary preparations.: So the women and children and breadwinners •have something to look forward to that traay relieve in some measure the present oppressive sordid conditions so intense in Huntly. A striking illustration of life in recent decades is to be seen pinned upon ihe notice board at Ralph's mine, Hxuitly. Kitty Gray&on's photo is on with two columns of letterpress describing Kitty's early days. She died ftt the ripe age of 92 years, and was ©mployed in the mines when eight years eld. The "Wigan Observer' did well in publishing the above. Ay, and we can think upon the early Victorian days when children were to he found underground working Hinder fiue-h. deplorable conditions that they bfCfrzne unsexed. To-day we can behold the agitators, the working-class- firebrands; that have Won better fighting conditions: all honour to th'osp fine souls —the-martyrs. • '.he people's flag is deepest red. It shrouded oft our martyred dead; And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold, Their hearts' blood dyed its every fold." Yet to-day is it not a damnable fact that the child-life is fuel to keep the machinery of "civilisation 1 ' going? True, indeed: "The human animal is ihe only animal which feeds upon its young." . Fellow workers, let's up and 'end this system, let's bring; in Socialism — humanity's hope l . — BILLY BANJO. .