Miners' Heroism.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 86, 1 November 1912, Page 1

Miners' Heroism.

LOYALTY TO FEDERATION

DISPUTES.

MOUNT LYELL. miners as a class of W/iirTiters ere nuli-' taut and aggressive, Taey are staunch trade unionists, and they are always ready to fight for what they consider their rights. In New Zealand, for instance, the miners are the strongest! supporters of the Federation of Labor. Without their support, indeed, the Iteration would find it difficult to exist. Their loyalty to their leaders is unquestionable, and is eclipsed only by tiheir loyalty to each other. Such incidanta as the Waihi strike not infrequently bring the miners into publio disfavor, and it is, therefore, all the more necessary that on occasion their fine qualities should be appreciated. How they stand by each other has been proved by the large sums*raised for the pupport of the idle miners at WaQii end Reefton. Nothing could be finer than tihis clas9 loyalty, if we) may use the term, except it is the magnificent heroism which miners invariably show when their manhood is put to the severest test. The Mount Lyell disaster is a case in point. The cables ring with praise of the heroism of the workers in their attempts to rescue fheir entombed comrades. We are "(eld $ha/fc hundreds of miners flocked to the scene of the accident to render aid. They organised themselves into teams, and worked night and day without oesfiation for the relief of those imprisoned in the underground passages. They heeded danger not a* all, but made desperate effort after desperate effort to pass through the poisonous fumes arising from the burning ore, until the spectators were thrilled by ihejr courage and devotion. The Mount Lyell story is the old, old story of the miner's heroism. The British miner may be stubborn and often unreasonable, but there is no doubt as to his manhood. He may strike without justification and cause endless inconvenience and loss, but let the call of danger sound and lie weighs his own life as dust in the balance. The stories of British mining disasters rank l with those of British marine disasters ac moving recitals of heroism and eelfsacrifice, and at North Mount Lyell the Australian miner proved himself worthy of the great traditions of his calling.—"Southland Times," Oortober 15.