THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 97, 13 April 1908, Page 4

THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

A TELEGRAM UtoAl MK. TREGEAR. Grcyuiouth. April 11. As showing how business is conducted at Blackball, the following remarkable letter, published to-day. is of interest: - "Alter yesterday- meeting of the Blackball .Miners' 1 ni..ij, I am forced to submit my view- to the public. I„ show them the manner in wl.ieh the proceedings ill connection with the strike are conducted. The meeting held ve.tenia v was brought alioiit in the following manner: It appears that on March 2.ilh the piesident of the I uion. Mr. liarnhilL r -ceived the following telegram from "r. Tregear. Secretarv ot Ijbour: MR. TRK.cKARX ' TKLKGRAM. Andrew Barnhill. president. Blackball Miners' I nion. Blackball. '"1 have been engaged on -cveral occasions with .Mr. Ilickey ami Air. McCullough, iu endeavouring to lin,l some solution of the present diHicully. I have come to the conclusion that there is no way out of it. except by the Minister's inlluenee being used with Air. Stead and directors. .Ministers, however, will not move alter the manner ill which a former approach was met. without having the guarantee of the liiion, through its Executive, that any arrangement made by them would be adhered to. The proposals formulated in my mind are as follow: — '"The directors to grant within a fortnight thirty minutes' crib time. " "Restoration ol the discharged men to their former position?. "The payment of half the tine. '"The men, on their part, to guarantee that, if these concessions are grantr, they will return ,o work at once. "'lf the men will ask the .Minister to intervene with Mr. Stead, the matter need not be made public in any way. in fact it would Ik- an entirety private arrangement, and one that would be expected to be confidential, so far as the Press is concerned. In regard to payment of half the line, the Government would give very easy terms—namely, three months, a portion being paid each month, but the final payment to be made within the three mouths. Personally, I urge you to accept. because I not only feel that you will gain nearly all the benefits for which the strike was instituted, but also because 1 have private information that many of the directors are urging that the mine should be shut down ..itogeiher until Hie railway come 3 nearer. "'EDWARD TREGEAR, ATTITUDE OF THE EXECUTIVE, i

"When this telegram was received, none of the miners, except the executive and a few of those in the know, heard anything ol it. These gentlemen—i.e., the executive—did not consider the whole of the miners capable of dealing with such a matter and consequently they, the wiseacres of the Union, considered it in chambers, with the result that Sir. Tregear wa» notified that the miners could not entertain such a proposal, and as much as told them to keep his suggestions to himself. Things went on as before, the miners quite 111 ignorance of the op|>oiutility of a satisfactory settlement they had missed. The Secretary for Uilior.* believing that lie had the decision of ill,, majoritv of the miners, and the executive of ' the Lnion, still reigned supreme. It will be noticed here that it was 011 the 27th that the Government decided to collect tlie fine, i.e., the seeing how unreasonable we were, but during the course of a week's time some of the miners heard rumors concerning the telegram, and, at a meeting held 011 April 3, some of them asked to have all the correspondence received read. They wer e told that there was nothing to read, but a good ileal of discussion ensued, but the executive remained firm, anil refused to read the telegram above mentioned. After the meeting, some of the miners enedavored to arrive at some means whereby they could obtain a copy of the telegram, and eventually they hit upon the idea of asking Mr. Tregear for a copy of the telegram sent to Mr. Barnhil'l, and, with that object iu view, sent a telegram to .Mr. Tregear, who replied promptly as follows: " "Of course, I cannot say that the terms mentioned could now be obtained. The telegram I sent was accompanied by one from Mr. Hickev and one from ,\lr. Hogg (for the Socialist Party), recommending that the terms : I suggested should l>e accepted. This telegram I sent on March Jj was as 1 follows (an exact copy of telegram ] already given atwve). 7 A si'l-XTAL MEETING.

hen this telegram was received a ni|uision was -igned by ten of the miners asking for a meeting of the I iiion. iTlii- wa- on Saturday afternoon. but the meeting was not held till Tuesdayi. Al tlii- meeting a request to read the telegram that the miner-' received from .Mr. Tregear was refused. but. after considerable discussion, the chairman consented to having the telegram -cut to .Mr. li.irnhill read. When tlii- telegram had been read the members coiiiiii. ih ei| di-<u-s the matter, but when it was trieil to make a motion re-einding the motion of continuing the strike and to ask the manager if the terms mentioned in the telegram were still open, they ueiv iule.l out of order by Mr. Fox, the i liaiiman, and any suggestions tending toward- a settlement was received with trie- of 'Out of order' from the chairman. Anything which suggested keeping ou strike ami allowing the executive full |mwcr was greeted with Hear, hear' from the chairman. Now, can anyone reading the alwvc say that th P executive of the Union wish a settlement! ADVICE HKJKCTFD.

"When the telegram from Mr. Tregear was received there were telegams alio received from Mr. Ilickey ami Mr Hogg recommending that the miners accept the terms offered, but instead of the executive acting on the advice ot these inen, they simply ignore everyone, even the men they represent, and say, We won't go back to work.' They also informed Mr. Hickey that he was sent to get financial support, not to arrange conferences and likewise to Mr. Hogg. They considered their own advice best. They only thing I can see is that they were afraid that the men would accept and go back to work, then they would lose all their notoriety, and iiave to move on to some other place where they are not known and trv the same frame there.

CKU! TIMIJ. "Ihe majority of tlie men are eom-inon-ense men. and would only have l>een too willing to accept the terms »-uggc-tcd I ,y Mr. Tregear, becau-,1 they reeognise tliev have broken the law, •Hid tluit it eannoi be exjiectcd that they -liould get the thirty minutes' erili time before resuming work, and if tliev were a--nred that the management would grant thirty minutes within a fortnight I have 110 limitation in giving tliev Would have returned to work immediately, especially as Mr. .Stead had promised to pay half the line. Of 1 course, Mr. Tregear ih>e- not say definitely that thirty minutes would have been granted within the fortnight, but he did say that he had been in com-

munication with the directors, and must have received some notice from them that they would grant the concessions if the I'nion would ask for them. Whctiier the director- would grant the-" concessions now after being refu-ed by the executive of the Union is. of course, unknown to me, but what was wanted I.V .011..' of t lie men \V;t - to .l-k the management if the men returned 1.1 work at onee w.nild they favorably ion -ider the thirty minute-. If we got thi- promi-e from the management we 1 oil Id send a deputation, -ay. two dayafter we started anil -ay. 'Now we have resinned work and shown oiir-ehv. reasonable men. we think it a- i- little as you can do to grant u- thirty minute-' crib time.' If this were done. lam of pinion that we would get thirty | minute-. n«»t in a fortnight, but in two Jays.

WHY NOT A UAUJOT t '*l am >orrv to say. »ir. flmt nil wen- ruM out of onli-r I>y i»ur c-ultuivu chairman. If the cvciiti\«- arr ii"i afraid of tin* iihmi returning to work why <lo tbpy not allow a lullot to taken ou the matter Tlii" i- llu* proper way of ;i.,rrlaiiiiii*: the feelings of tin- men. N<»u thi- ionly our instant** of tin* >piemlir! ruling nf thr chairman of tin- meeting. When at the of tin' frouM*- \lr M"ii. om« of the alih'-f nun in thr f'nioji. <.n;:j:«Me»[ that tIi»» Tiii'ii "lionl'l lii-f t!»*♦ law ami a«t uith it at llirir ha<k. li«* «,ii nih-'t Miit of onler ;m<l tall-

Ed upon to sit down. Mi- Mori continued throughout the whole of the trouble to advocate these principle-, and tor so doing lie lias been suspended from tic Union altogether by our learned Executive."