THE AUSTRALIAN COAL STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 258, 7 December 1909, Page 3

THE AUSTRALIAN COAL STRIKE

A COMPLICATED SITUATION

STRIKE LEADERS HAILED OUT

By Cable—Press Association—Copyrig it Sydney, December 0.

Mr. Hughes declares that the arrests have enormously complicated the' situation.

I The Railway and Tramway Association refused to countenance tlie general .b'trike mania or the Bowling l jje oi leader. In voting money for strike purposes, the association earmarked it for a Bpeciiic use. All the leaders arrested were bailed out within a few hours. The offence was alleged to have been committed on November sth. This was the date on which a delegate of the board recommended a strike.

The police visited the Trades Hal] and secured a large number of documents ana a minute-hook relating to the proceedings on November sth. A mass meeting of miners was held at Newcastle anil addressed by Mr. Bowling and other leaders.

The meeting passed a resolution co" demning the action of the Governme I. Everything passed off quietly.

ANOTHER ARREST.

Sydney, December C.

Mr. Grey, general secretary of the Northern Coal Workers, was arrested o;j the same charge as the other leaders. The wharf laborers have knocked oil unloading the cargo steamer JJurftam. The discharge of the Marmora's cargo has been, commenced by unionists.

SCHEME FOR LIGHTING SYDNEY.

By Telegraph. —Press Association. Wellington, December 0.

A private telegram from Waipukurau states that Messrs. Chambers and Booth, local patentees, are negotiating with the Lord Mayor of Sydney to light that city with Dreadnought gas by the beginning of January. The light is a great success, in Waipukurau.

A MISAPPREHENSION: MEN RE'IuK.N TO WORK. ANOTHER OFFICIAL ARRESTED. Received December C, 10.50 p.m. Sydney, December 6. The Dorset strike was due to a misapprehension on the part of the men that a general strike had been ordered. They resumed work in the afternoon. Lewis, treasurer of the Northern Miners' Federation, has been arrested.

Those arrested on Saturday appeared at the Newcastle court and were remanded till to-morrow,

MEETING OF WATERSIDE WORKERS.

SUPPORT STRIKE COMMITTEE.

Received 7, 12.40 a.m. Sydney, December 6. ! An important meeting of watersrl'! workers to-night expressed confidence m the striie committee, and resolved to continue work. There was a strong feeling at the outset to "down tools/' •but Mr. jiughes succeeded in convincing them to continue work.

POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS. Writes the Wellington Post's Sidney correspondent:— If two mines start working, the result upon the strike will be interesting. For the Newcastle Colliery Proprietors' Association, which includes, but does not correspond with, the Newcastle Coal Vend, is united only by self-interest, jind it may soon senai to bo the interest of other proprietors to join those who have broken away. Then the Southern and Western miners, Northern men at Newcastle, may recommence work .as a natural corollary of the Newcastle plan. The Southern men on the whole get on fairly well with their employers j and in the Southern district many of the men are purchasing homes by pay-day instalments on security given bv the mine-owners. As a class, too, 'they are quiet family mm, with no faith in the benefit of strikes, and with a Keen sense of the value of wagis. The Westerners are really .• off. "Alrwt of their Western overseers lire in synijialhy with the men, and use their influence to gain easy conditions of laimr. A legal agreement upon oatstanding grievances has been recently reached, and little more than confirmation was needed when the men we.it out. S.i the strike-leaders have in view a condition of things in which all '!:e mines but those controlled by the Newcastle Coal Vend will be working, while the Newcastle miners unemployed will be supported by a fund derived from 'lie Southern and Western unions, from ti.o other sympathetic unions in Austri'ia and New Zealand, and from the strikethared profit 011 particular Newcastle mines, outside the Vend, with a product sold at -onl-fiuiiitu' prices. ' At the time I write the success of such a plan seems quite possible, for efforts to rouse a "definite "public opinion" against the miners have so far failed. There are several reasons for ile failure. In the first place, while the origins of trouble are indefinite, it is vaguely fell that the Coal Vend has taken an uncomrionly stiff attitude in regard to the miners' complaints, just or unjust. In the second place, i.).e Vend, as a trust or combination to monopolise the supply of coal, and fix the terms of sale, has excited antipathy, though it has not been shoivit that as far as the public is conce,'n>.'d the Void's power has been harshly cxer-, cised. In the third place, by stopping a general strike, by asking for a conference, and' specially by meeting the Acting-Premier's request to "get together and talk it over"—a request which the mine-owners refused on excellent, but not on convincing grounds—the strikers have improved their position in the eyes of many people. In the fourth place, it is Labor that has chiefly suffered iiy the strike, it is Labor that chiefly will continue to suffer; and although Labor (toes not grin, it is beari'ig the trouble for the sake of Labor soli larity, which is a reality in Australia. So that the Government has not the public backing it liad in the ease of the Sydney tramway strike, ana has to move cautiously. An effort is apparently being made to turn Sydney opinion against the strikers by cutting down train and tram service's; but, until it is shown that this action has been rea'iv made necessary by the state of the Hailway Department's stock of coal, the inconvenience is likely to be attributed rather to the Government than to the strike. No such proof has been off-j.-^d. As for risKing civil war by attempting to fine or imprison the strikers or tln-ir lend. rs. no Government in its senses would dream of it at this day, in this country, in this dispute.