MILITANT MINERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 867, 10 January 1930, Page 1

MILITANT MINERS

Mobilising For Demonstration POLICE READY TO RESIST Trouble Develops at Rothbury Mix ERS around the troubled coalmine area in New South Wales are reported to be organising lor a monster demonstration. * The police have asked lor reinforcements and these are being sent to the Rothbury fields by special train.

Reed. noon. SYDNEY, Today. Reports received from the coalfields early this morning indicate that ,he miners are mobilising for a big demonstration at Rothbury today. Oessnock and Kurri miners are reported to be preparing to leave their respective towns in order to be at Rothbury by daybreak. A group of miners, consisting ot about 300 men. occupying 11 lorries, were within five miles of Rothbury last night. It is believed they are from Newcastle. Officials ot the Rothbury police <*mp were busy during the nigh! making preparations. Mounted police are searching the district in the vicinity of the camp.

Over 50 police left in a special train from Sydney for the scene shortly after midnight in response to a request for reinforcements. POLICE IN CHARGE COAL TRUCKED FROM ROTHBURY MASSED MARCH PLANNED SYDNEY, Thursday. Early this morning 300 tons of coal from the Rothbury pit were hauled to Newcastle, a distance of 25 miles. No attempt was made by the strikers or by pickets to interfere with the train, the crew of which consisted of two locomotive inspectors, one of whom acted as driver and the other as fireman. The guard’s van was filled with policemen who were strongly armed. A second train, hauling 400 tons of coal from Rothbury, reached Newcastle later in the day. A special meeting of all the miners’ lodges in the Newcastle district was held today. It was decided to hold a massed march to the Rothbury mine “on a future date.”