Strike and Lock-out.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 83, 11 October 1912, Page 1

Strike and Lock-out.

News and Views.

CIVINC HELL. The miners were in "trouble, Bob Semple, from the stump, He smote the owners hip and thighlie smote them on the rump. Now Bob, he is a collier, and he's hound to give ii lip When going for his enemy to smite him on the hip. And I must own some whacking words he wielded a3 he smote Were not what swains or diplomats would overoften quote. Well, the miners were in trouble, and we took the hats around. And the Lord should fill them double all the open hands we found, Till I got to where v something in an automobile sat. The lean, T thought, do mighty well, aud now I'll strike the fat: "For the miners and their women every little does some good!" "No! I would give you hell," he said. "Hell, if I only could!" That peaceful, polished, temperate, well-educated plute; The bullying coward, overfed, mean, ill-conditioned brute 1 —Sydney Fournier. # * • "Slavery was p' ' down in America, not in consequence of any action on the part of the' slaves or even any express desire on their part that they should be free. It was put down entirely 'through the grossly illegal conduct of certain agitators in Boston and elsewhere, who were not slaves themselves, nor owners of slaves, nor had anything to do with the question really."— Oscar Wilde, in "The Soul of Man Under Socialism."

Thus a Levin exchange: Two members ot *the Flax Workers' Union who were .in jLevin ve.terdav discussed the question _$ the M Waiht>t'stnke and j_s 1 "tod' l '■&*" -C' * $" v ' riasworker*-.' Union They -stated, in tonveiaation with a ' Chronicle" repoiter, that the executive was waiting developments at Waihi. If the Federation of Labor were to win. the probability was* that the union would heartily co-operate with the Federation, but that if it lost the probability was that the union would join in with the Unity of Labor party. "At all events," said one, "tlie position is most unsatisfactory. We don't know where we are, and it's about time tho executive made a definite statement."

We trust this isn't a representative "flaxie's" opinion; only cravens sit on

The Campaign fop Workingclass Triumph.

rails in crises. Anyhow, the sort cf unionism that is yes-no isn't much use. * *

A true-as-gold correspondent writes in high praise of the excellent Federationist work being done by Mayor Coppersmith at Runaugu. When the strike is over we're going along to Runauga to writ© up as it deserves the one Socialist borough in New Zealand. Meanwhile, luck and life to it!

A Runanga correspondent writes to the Grey "Star": —"Something in the natoire of a serious disturbance happened at Runanga on Wednesday evening. It appears that there are a small minority of unionists here who still refuse to pay the 10 per cent, levy, whether from meanness or from conscientious conviction is not apparent. These men are looked upon by their mates as some degrees worse than scabs and blacklegs. When a loyal unionlrt meets one of these men he usually averts his face or turns it ia another direction and holds his nose. He considers tifat he is passing something particularly disgusting and offensive. On Wednesday evening as three of these scab men entered the library, they were surrounded and pelted with sods and eggs. In the melee that followed an egg of a fairly ripe nature struck one of the deputy managers fair in the eye, much to his disgust and the merriment of the onlookers. The library, following the example, set by the deputy's eye, closed for the remainder of the evening. The manager of a certain business in Runanga, 1 understand, has been boycotted because, forsooth, he is boarding at the house of a scab. The unionists are determined to eradicate the scab disease."

In a recent speech irv the IJouse cf Representatives on the Iteefton dispute, and* 1 ihe mt**jo'j|pptiou , iri :_*-• mines of the >au|r-*difti; "<MI CS,-fc (j-to}Jer)jsid it' was claimed for the drill that it would do three or four times as much work' as the old machine; but it- was not a fair thing to suggest! that one man should be left alone at the face working, and it was not in accordance with the spirit of the award under which the men were working. The mine-owners had locked the men out for refusing to work these machines, and they ought to be prosecuted. If the Federation of Mine-owners had wished to settle tho dispute it could have been settled. It was not fair always to blame the miners, the workers, and the slavers, who made all the profits.

The following manifesto was issued by the new "union": —We, as members of the recently-formed Ohinemuri Mines and Batteries Employees' Union, desire to make clear our reasons for forming on industrial union under the arbitration laws of New Zealand. We belong to that section which were not satisfied with the ballot taken by the Waihi Union upon the question of the cancellation of its registration under the Arbitration Act. The deadlock which has since occurred and which has lasted for nearly five months can only be terminated by the action we have taken. We decline to be a charge upon the generosity of our fellow-workers when there is profitable employment awaiting us and a judicial tribunal in the case of dispute is offered to us. We bear no animosity toward those who think that wo are wrong in taking this, the only line of action possible to J* ring about re-em-ployment.' We ask that those who are willing to return to their work shall recognise that all sections have rights and

dered

liberties. We invite you to join us in sharing the management of union affairs, leaving the final settlement of _ dispuKft to * t-ho 1;" ,-.* Oi* 'the fond in 1 which we live. 1

Last week a reporter ascertained that the railways, steamship companies, manufacturers and all others in Auckland dependent on constant coal supplies have laid" in big reserve stores, fearing trouble amongst the coal miners. None of the coal merchants have accumulated supplies, and importations from Newcastle and elsewhere are snapped up as speedily as they arrive, the demand exceeding the supply.

Last week the Dunedin railway officials received instructions to lay in immediately as large supplies of coal as possible in view of any emergency arising through the coal mines closing down if a general strike should be or-

Mr. Fagan, secretary of the Inangahua Miners' Union, before leaving Wellington, explained more fully than was done to Mr. Justice Sim the reasons actuating the Federation of Labor executive in declining to accept the arbitration proposed by the goldmining companies. "The Reefton miners," ho said, "were locked-out immediately after the Waihi strike. They were lock-ed-out, according to the mine manager's statements, because they refused to work on a certain drill single-handed. The manager has stated to tlie newspaper press of the country that this is the cause of the trouble, and lie has had open-air demonstrations to prove that it was a very simple contrivance to cause so much trouble, and yet when the matter is raised in tho Arbitration

Court Mr. Pryor suggests on behalf of tlie employers that stoping by contract is the cause of the dispute. The Federation oi Labor takes up the attitude that tlit* question oi' one-man-one-drill caused the lock-out and that it should be tho only question to submit- to arbitration." * * s Twenty constables wcte sent down to Waihi on September 30. The "N.Z. Herald's" correspondent at Waihi stated that the police force was to number 90 on October 2. 5 » « Owing to the Waihi strike, the gold returns for September in the Auckland district only amounted to £29,778 65., as compared ( with £93,250 12s. lOd. for September of last year —a decrease of £63,472 Us. lOd. The amount for the eight months of the present year is £5,333,349 12s. 6d., this being a decrease of £243,850 7s. 9d. as compared with the same period last year.

Sandwiched between two anti-Fed-eration editorial, the "Waimate Advertiser" the other day had an article headed: "Were the Managers Guilty?" in which it got nearest to the facts underlying the Waihi strike. Thus our contemporary: "It may be that the interests of the mine managers were not ill served by the strike, however. There had been a serious setback for tlie largest company through the discovery that the mine could not continue its enormous output of gold indefinitely, and shares had depreciated in consequence. That was about 18 months ago. It is not impertinent to point out that the shares are not to-day quoted at less than they were the mouth before the strike began. Mean-

while the ordinary business oj Waihi has slumped heavily, and financially many people have been ruined. Did the mine 3 *.ur:optitiot.dy sel about killing two objectionable birds with the same stone, and arrange with the engine-drivers to fire the catapult ? Did they not desire (1) to kill time against a restoration of confidence in the money market in particular relation te shares in their companies; and (2) did they not, by engineering the secession of the engine-drivers and getting them to register under the Arbitration Act, bring the Federation face to faco with a position challenging a fight for principle, with the ulterior ob--ject of ridding the mines of a troublesome set of men ? These are questions that ought, in fairness to the strikers, to be answered."

"Truth," alone among contemporaries, has been doing firstrate in putting the case for the miners on strike and in denouncing tho police persecution.

That resolution in the Waihi new? from the stalwart engine-drivers to the scab engine-drivers rings true. May the shadow of stalwart-ism never grow less.

The hawker who called at tlie door was asked if his apples were good. "They're Federation apples," he said, "hard to beat."

'The men are absolutely solid and are quite prepared to continue the fight indefinitely."—A Waihi correspondent.

Very latest wire from Waihi: "Everything hero good. No fear of scab miners coming to work. Women acting splendidly.—SMlTH."

Peter Bowling cables: "Southern miners' best wishes win; forwarding ono hundred pounds."