THE WAIHI STRIKE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9, 4 September 1912, Page 7

THE WAIHI STRIKE.

COMPANIES READY TO WORK IE FREE LABOUR OFFERS. The strike at Waihi has new reached the sixteenth week, whidln, roughly speaking, means a loss all round of about £300,000, says the Auckland Star. This may be divided as follows: Miners’ wages £70,000, and gold not produced £230,000. It will he noticed, however, that while the men are absolutely £70,000 short in wages, the loss to the companies cannot be considered on similar lines, as the gold is still in the ground and will he there to be got out as soon as- work is resumed. At tike same time the shareholders are so much out of pocket in not having the gold won from the mine, added to which is also the loss of interest on the capital at present lying idle, and also in the continuance of salaries of permanent officials, including offices here and in London. On the other hand, althouglhi the men have not been receiving full pay, still some of the loss has been mitigated by the strike pay, and several hundreds have left the district, and presumably have found employment at full wages elsewhere.

The position is, however, quite clear that as far as tlhe community is concerned, £300,000 less gold has been won from the mines at Waihi, and £70,000 less distributed in the shape of wages. The value of the mining industry to Auckland may be estimated from the fact that something like £500,000 is distributed each year •by the Waihi Company alone, apart from what is paid out by other companies up there in the shape of wages. The long continuance of the strike, therefore, is a serious matter for the whole community 7 . Less wages mean less expenditure, and that affects tradespeople, which, in turn, reaches the merchants in Auckland. Then, too, the cessation of work at the mines necessarily means loss in the matter of supplies such as coal and timber during flic sixteen weeks the strike has been on.

The mine-owners are, of course, outside the present strike as far as being in any way concerned witJlii tire dispute, and from a statement made by Mr Charles Rhodes to a representative of the Auckland Star to-day it seems probable that work would be resumed if free labour was available. Speaking on this subject, Mr Rhodes (who is president of the Mine-owners’ Association) said: “During a recent visit to Waihi, I gathered that there exists an impression that the mining companies will not start work in their mines till after an 'Agreement has been made with a union registered under the Arbitration ;Aot. Though it is quite true that no agreement will be made with any union or federation not registered under the Arbitration Act, the mind rtwhers purjibsdly left it open for miners to start work without any agreement whatever, if they thought fit. When sufficient, miners offer to work without any agreement this probability is that their desire will be favourably ,cppsidcred. There is no special virtue ,in an agreement which men will not Jvbide hy, hence we do not at present regard the necessity for an agreement as a very, burning question.” It would not pay to start the pumping and winding plant going, unless there were a fair number of men ready to resume work, and then there would still bo the danger that tin's might lead to difficulty with the coal-miners, who, as members of the Federation of Labour, would naturally object to supply coal to keep the engines working for the benefit of free labourers.”

Asked regarding tho resumption of

work at Wnikino, Mr Rhodes explain-

ed that what had really occurred was that the work of erecting the poles for the transmission of electric power from Horn Horn, had now started on the Waikino side of the range, as the company naturally wished to push on with that scheme. The men working on the other side of the range had not been interfered with, but he I’nad heard that some twenty miners had left Waihi for Waikino, and were staying in that place. This may probably be with the idea of trying to dissuade the men from continuing work on the Flora Horn scheme.