THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1916 COAL MINERS' STRIKE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 232, 5 December 1916, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times

PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1916 COAL MINERS' STRIKE.

The Official Organ ot : The Franklin County Council. The Pukekohe Borough Council. The Tuakau Town Board. The Karaka Eoad Board. The Pokeno Road Board. The Wairoa Koad Board. The Papakura Town Board. The Waikato River Board. The Mercer Town Board. The Manurewa Town Board

''We nothing extenuate, nor tet down auaht in malice."

Simultaneously with the announcement of the settlement of the Australian coal crisis and the Drivers' Union dispute came the news that the miners at Blackball had gone out as a protest against the enforcement of conscription. Though this development is regrettable it was scare ly unexpected, but it is reassuring to know that tbe trouble is not likely to spread. It has long been known that some of these irresponsible folk who love to pose as "leaders of organised labour" are uncompromisingly opposed to conscription, and these men are looked up to by a certain section of the raok-and-tile as beaven-sent guides. The pernicious doctrine preached is unhesitatingly accepted as tbe true gospel. The miners have been persuaded that conscription means the forfeiture of the liberties and privileges which they now enjoy, and. further, that it is a menace to the interests of their ch?s and pregnant with a recrudescence to serfdom. Consequently tbey are prepared to go any lengths to oppose it. It does not apparently occur to them that tbe danger threatens from without, not within, and that to maintain their present position they must not fight the friends who conceded it, but the enemy which seeks to filch it. The miners stopped work without consulting the Federation, and apparently they are not prepared to accept without demur the advice of the executive to return to work. The incident is a pathetic indication as to the extent to which men will permit prejudice to warp their judgment, and also to the powers of bounce and blatancy upon a crowd of untbinking men. It is somewhat reassuring, however, to think that men who are so easily led in the wrong direction can, with tactlul handling, generally be induced to as readily retrace their steps. We cannot think that the trobule will spread. If Britons are to maintain their position it can only be done by every Briton putting every ounce into the scale. The miners are not wanted to go to the front toey can "do their bit" at borne, and aurely they can discern in the German levy en masse of the civilian population and tbe deportations from the overrun countries a greater permanent menace to tbeir vaunted liberties than in the infliction of temporary compulsory service to their own country,