Sketcher.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 34, 18 November 1893, Page 10

Sketcher.

tthe great coal strike

(Bt Aueoea.)

The distress caused throughout the whole of the north of England, smd extending tTen to the south, by the great coal-strike, isjJPP a The situation is undoubtedly grave for the general public as well as those concerned m the mini industry. The master miners wish to reduce the wages of the men 2o per cent, and the men will hear of 4 reduction. They are steadfastly refusing to work, and their cry is no surrender.” It is not simply that eoal-o-etting and many other industries ° are stopped practically or entirely, and that thousands of workers are out of work and the pinch of poverty, but that there is no prospect of a better state o things coming about for some time to come. Here is a view of the situation, so far as the colliers are -concerned, which cannot be overlooked. Said one man ' v^ om 1 spoke to on the subject, What is to he done p The law will not allow us to beg nor to steal. We cannot go to work if we were disposed (and we ai e mot disposed, at least, at a reduction), and there seems nothing for it but to starve and drop. I tell you wha i is. Miss, I am very much afraid that some will take to had ways. An empty- stomach is certainly an evi companion, and the

CBIBS OF CHILDREN FOB BREAD are terribly heart-rending. Probably mo less than eight-tenths of the miners locked out are at present face to lace with starvation. They had a little in store with which to commence such a contest. As a class they are very open-handed, and spend as they go The intelligence of most of the men is considerably above the average, and they show that _ they have grasped the economic side of the conflict in which they are engaged. They and their fellows are confronted with a grim spectre, but they do not flinch. And were it not lor the women and little children who are literally starving and dying for the want of food, one would almost he tempted to admire the dogged persistency with which they cleave to the cause which they think to be right. As a whole, the conduct of the men in most of the mining centres has been orderly and well-behaved ; there has Ibeen very little rioting, but the outlook is a terribly dark and dismal one. The men declare that they will DIE LIKE DOGS before they will give in. The funds of the tlnion are well-nigh exhausted, but still they do not dream' of accepting the masters’ terms. They declare that there will be no going in at 25 per cent reduction on this side of Christmas, and should they have to submit in the end, it will not be long before they renew the battle. The collier knows the value of his labour, and is of opinion that it is as much entitled to consideration as the capital ©f the masters. The day has gone past when they will accept a wage which will barely keep body and soul together. In almost every dwelling there has been the same cruel fight with hunger and privation and the winter is before them! You, in bonnie T?"ew Zealand, can scaicely understand what this means. In all probability,—judging from the heavy snow-storm which we have already bad| (23rd September), —we shall have one of the most severe winters we have had for a long time and if this should be so, one scarcely dares look the future in the face. Many of the keenest sufferers do not in any way obtrude their sufferings either on the public or on their neighbours. They close their doors to shut out the pitying gaze of the passer-by and to impress within as small a compass as possible their own misery. 1 orfu- ; nately I am living right in the centre the DURHAM COAL MINES, and the men working these mines,

have refused to go in with the rest ; they have not yet forgotten the big struggle of *92. It is a time of prosperity for them, many of the men working 16 hours a day. Coal is being conveyed from Durham to all parts of the kingdom ; traffic has been delayed, and in many places there has been a dead block on the lines. The different railway companies have lost already through the strike about two millions. The train service has been reduced by half, and trade and commerce generally seem to be nearly paralysed. Mill-owners and manufacturers have had to work half time, and many have suspended work altogether. Leeds, in addition to the coal strike, is suffering from a PEOSFECTIYE WATEK ‘FAMINE. The supply is turned on in the town only for a few hours a day, and the last notice stated that there was only a fornight’s supply left, and that only on very short commons. Without coals and without water, their winter promises to be a very soiry one. Coals are selling in Durham and district for 8s 9d a .ton. The same coals fetch in Leeds and the various districts affected by the strike, 22s 6d, and in many cases 28s and 29s a ton.