With Special Reference to Waihi.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 70, 12 July 1912, Page 6

With Special Reference to Waihi.

By EDWARD

When the. people of Mew Zealand unl d«-r«u«inJ the truth about thi> gold mines oi the Dominion they will sovn hnd a way out of their financial diflicuhies. The first thing Mew Zcalandei-fe .should understand is that every ton of <martz got from tlie mines is a ten ol iNcw Zealand—-that every ounce cd gold is a part of New Zealand. ' When thoy speak oi protecting Now Zealand or prate of New Zealand for the New Zealandeis. they should think what they mean. The second thing they should understand is that the shareholders in the mining companies are a* useless as libo Hies in summer. Amone who grasps these two facts will begin to look tor thc remedy.

The Waihi mine was purchased for .C.3H00. The present capital of the Waihi mine is £495,907 in £1 shares. How much of this is genuine capital and how much represents the profit; of those who purchased the mine for £3000 we do not know. But if every pound is genuine capital, advanced by the capitalists, it makes small difference to the results,

Of the 495,007 shares, only 147,000 are held by colonial shareholders, leaving 348,907 held in London. Tlie mine is- dominated from London. Most of the machinery, etc., ip purchased in London, where tbe London shareholders rule. At the recent annual mooting, held in London, it was announced that the question of buying another mine or mines would be decided by the London shareholders.

Last year (1911) tho profit was £371.----540. Twelve hundred men at £3 per week, working 40 weeks in the year, would mean a wages cost of £105.000. In other words, for every £3 in wages the idle and useless shareholders would get over £6. Twice as much for the idlers as I he wages of the workers.

Let cvoi-\ tradesman consider what it would mean it these figures were reversed and tho idlers had £3 an 1 the wot'le ;.- £0. If the workcis had three times their present mikoiiic to spend in Waihi and other parts of New "Zealand, instead of this being scH to London, tl■<" result would be. a trade boom in New Zealand.

In If 10 the profit was £500,000. If tlie same number of nice (V-'OO) were working in "IflO, for every £3 thc men got in thc shnreholdeis would receive £10 10s. Three pounds a week fer doing the work ! Ten guineas for letting them world Ibidcr fcocinlism, what would you do with ibe idler? AI! this is bad enough, but when patriot )• New Zoalaudcis learn that the geld u'on—l like that word "won": what it rrally means the cemetery ni Waihi tells most eloquently— the gold wen -'by the lives and labor oT the workers' to the end of April. 1912, Mas £9.f-IH.SM. Ten millions of New Zealand gold, and in the Dominion all Ihe geld coin you have got is a lii lie over half a million. When- is that 0J millions? Whe has get thai 9- millions? Lot us see. Dividends and bonuses paid up to tbe annual meeting in May. £.1,4.(3,-131. This gives an average of £180.000 a year in dividends for tbe 25 years of the company's existence. If the average- number of men employed for tlie whole '2"> years has been 1000 per year —it n ill be much less—and Ibe wages have 1". en C 3 a week for 40 weeks per year, the animal wages bill would be £135.000. This means that if there are 1000 shaieiiolders with £500 each invested in the YVailii mine, and 1000 workers, for every £3 the worker has received in wages the idler has received £4 iv dividends. If the idlers put their £5011 each into the Waihi mine 25 Aeais ago they will have received tbeir eapitsl back nine times over. This means they have bad it out nine litres. yet still have it in. If they had.all died after receiving their money hack oin-e, it would not have made the slightest difference to Ibe working of the Waihi mine. Socialists are often asked: Wh'-re would you find the capital? What would be -aid 'f the workmen demanded to be paid their was-es nine limes over? Vet this is what the capitalist has done at Waihi. Don't you think it. is time that the idlers in Loudon and elsewhere were loii! they have had enough of NViv Zealand lo share out among the idle aud usele-s. and that. New Zealand is goinlo resume <if ii.s own: ibaf. to the words of Marx, "the ex-piopi-iainrs shall be expropriated" ? Hut some p.ople will ask: 'What about compensation?" For inysilf the compen>.ad jon would come from those who had robbed Now Zealand so lon-. Per the sake of those of weaker faith, let iu<- make a sound busbies'; prnposi-

. HARTLEY.

tion. Let the Government at the first meeting of Parliament decide to buy up the Waihi mine, paying the full 495,907 shares thc full pound, when the capitalists will have had their £1 back ten times over. year's profits were £371,500. the previous yea-r £659,000, and in two years' timo with similar results they will have £9:30,000 with which to pay off £500,000. If this is done, New Zealand need never again borrow n.cney from any outsiders for any public works. Have the £430,000 profit coined into sovereigns and you will never be short of money again. In three years' time tbe wages of the miners could bo doubled, and in addition, for every £6 they received in wages thoy would earn £1 for the general revenue of the Dominion. UNITED WORKERS. If all the workers iv New Zealand were joined up to tho Federation of Labor, we would bring all the workmen away from W ; aihi except the few necessary to look after the houses and furniture, which in many cases would have to be left liohind. We would refuse ever again to work the mine, for the idlers, and the growing solidarity of the workers in other lands would enable us to keep out blacklegs. Or we wonld keep the men out until the shares wero worth ss. or less, then buy them up for tlie Federation, when, if we allowed the men to go back to work, the profits of the mine would pay all hhe expenses of the Federation, find tbe funds for all other disputes, and without any more levies enable ii!» to play their own financial game on the capitalist class, and in less than years we would take held of the main industries in New Zealand at the point of production.