Organiser's Notes.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 77, 30 August 1912, Page 3

Organiser's Notes.

By E. R. HARTLEY.

In Reefton, 4

CLORIOUS SOLIDARITY OF THE MINERS. A MEMORABLE MEETING.

QUESTIONERS QUASHED.

The meetings in Greymouth could not be described as wildly enthusiastic, though the Greymouth "Argus" did its best for us in some eulogistic preliminary paragraphs.

At the Town Hall an Irish Horn« Ruler was very angry because I w*s not very much impressed by some Irish lawyers. Few lawyers have ever been friends of the people, and certainly not the ones he mentioned.

From Greymouth to Reefton. We were warned that the West Coast would e;ive us bad weather, yet curiously enough we've had three weeks of beautifully fine weather and enjoyed some beautiful sunsets. Tlie pink tips of the snow-topped mountains, with the dark purple of the lower hills, constitute a magnificent sight, and when the last dip of the sun gives another plow before sinking into solemn twilight, soon to be followed by the blackness of night or a marvellous galaxy of stars, one is silent from wonder and delight. The moon, though the same old moon, is the other side up, and shines more brilliantly than we have ever noticed it at home.

At Reefton we waked up to rain, and had a day indoors. Such weather delights the editor's heart, for it means cony. The slow and difficult travelling takes up no end of time, and is wearying to a degree. A day of rain gives one the chance of catching up with correspondence and doing a little bit for the ferocious editor, who sitting at ease —so to speak—demands, generally with a winning smile, "copy" and again "more copy."

But Reefton. Ah, Sir, Reefton! Either the Reefton miners or the Reefton and district newspaper editors must' be asses. They cannot both he right; and the editors who know nothing about the matter except what interested, parties tell them said Mark Fagan was the cause of the trouble. Poor fools, they never try to understand the real reason for the troubles, but always seek a scapegoat. The miners, however, who know all about the matter, and who have to bear the brunt of Mark's failures and who pay his wages and keep him in his position—the miners, I repeat, in spite of every effort and endless misrepresentation, after a dispute lasting over three months, gave Fagan 416 votes against 37 for a candidate who wanted what the masters wanted, and was the approved of the reptile press.

Bravo, Reefton limners! Bravo, '"fargan! Such solidarlfy mates an old worker for industrial solidarity almost dance with delight. What a blow such a vote must have been for the Mining Association and its fellow, the Employers' Federation! When the remainder of the workers are as solid for their class as the miners of New Zealand the masteT-class can get ready to put up their shutters.

The newspaper hacks will do their best, and every possible effort will be made to cause dissension in our ranks. Kaitangata sops and many other sops of a similar kind will be given, but it should always be remembered that they are not given for love or for. righteousness, but merely to mislead and delude the workers. The rich will do anything but get off the workers' backs. They will even ride vrithout a saddle and with a piece of old,cord instead of their present jewelled bridles, rather than getl off the workers' backs.

Not a newspaper in New Zealand would have a headline on their bills. "Striking solidarity of the workers," over the Reefton ballot. The morning paper at Reefton said Mr. Fagan polled a few over 400 and his opponent "something less than 50." "Something less than .50!" Fagan got 416— the other 37. If the ballot had gone the other way. every newspaper in the Dominion would have given prominence to the result, and much ink would have been spilled to show this was the beginning of the end of the feared and hated "Red Federation." Here's to the men of Reefton!