BROKEN HILL STRIKE

Southland Times, Issue 18848, 14 June 1920, Page 6

BROKEN HILL STRIKE

THE LONGEST ON RECORD. WHAT THE MEN ARE FIGHTING FOR. The Victoria Hull was well filled last night, when Mr R. Semple gave an address on the objects of the Broken Hill strike. Mr Semple in his opening remarks said that the Broken Hill miners had now been on strike for 13 mouths and the light wag not for an increased wage, but for better V/oi niig conditions. He then threw upon the .-•jrcen pictures of the "houses” in which the miners of Now Zealand were compelled to live, and which, he stated, resembled those of Broken Hill. The lead miner ran more risks than any other miner. The latest, commission report on miners’ phthisis stated that the miner stricken lived on the average three and a half years after being first attacked. The Broken Hill mine commenced with a capita! of 118,000, and from the first was a paying concern. The total if profits for the period the mines had been working was £20,000,000, or an average of £1,500.000 a year. The mine was now a huge concern, and covered acres of ground with a costly plant erected out, of the earnings of the mine. The men were asking for » six hour day from bank to bank, contending that it was better to shorten the working day titan to shorten the lives of those engaged in working at unhealthy levels. He worked at Broken Hill years ago and lie could speak from personal experience of those days, ami he said that many animals around the smelters died of lead poisoning. One of the most deadly of the miners’ diseases was miners' phthisis and that disease was not unknown in the dominion. .He produced letters showing (hat recently at Waihi :t number of miners whose ages ranged from 29 to 40 years were then in hospital suffering from the disease. The coal miner was not affected by the disease, the lungs being sufficiently protected by nature to combat coal dust. Many deaths of miners, registered untier different complaints, could be directly traced to miners’ phthisis. The miner, if he stopped long enough in the mine was bound to contract the de-ease with fatal results. The learl miner had that disease to fare as well as load poisoning. A medical man had made the statement that 75 per cent, of the men working at Broken Hill suffered with lung deterioration that shortened their lives from 15 to 27 years and many families had developed consumption directly due to the father contracting miners' phthisis. There were 1000 miners working at Broken Hill and the rate of accidents was 250 in six months while in the Barrier mine one in every three had met with an accident. The t.emiseraUiro at which the men had to work was 80 degrees by the wet bulb. The cause of the miners contracting lead poisoning was the fumes given off by (he blasted metal which penetrated the pores of the skin, and thus reached the blood, causing heart, failure, and Bright’s disease and other kidney troubles. The mortality of the miners of Broken Hill from the diseases mentioned was higher than in any other mining centre in the world. The miners asked for a six hour day and a five day week to allow them to recuperate from the effects of their shifts, and rebuild their bodies (o enable them to better resist the attack? of the disease. By having more recreation they would have a better chance (o live the allotted span, and not be taken by one of the miners’ complaints just when they had had taken upon themselves the greatest respondiseases mentioned were small and the conditions existing at present thein chances of beating one or other of the diseases mentioned were vry small, anti many were taken just when they had built homes and started to rear families, leaving the widows to fight the battle alone. Those unfortunate women had to do whatever they could to rear their families, and when their day’s work was done they were not fit to give the children proper attention. The dstruction of home life struck at the mainspring of civilisation, and it was for the chance to have a little homo life that the Broken Hill miners wer striking. Thir fight, concluded the speaker, was against disease, accident and death. It was not a wages fight but a fight for the chance of living decent lives for the protection of their own family circle. A motion of sympathy with the Broken Hill miners was carried, and a collection — J of the miners totalled £ll.