THE MINERS' DISPUTE.
THE NEXT STEP. MINERS NOT LIKELY TO STRIKE. (B y Telegraph.—Own Correspondent)* Wellington, Mav 18. 4 : :The mineowners intend to proceed Immediately with the citing of the miners' unions before the Conciliation Council*, with a view to the settlement of tit* dispute in the legal way. What the miners will do in the meantime remain! to ho seen.
There is a possibility of the conMription issue being revived in connection with the miners, who, in consequence Of their having taken part in the recent ivtrike, were refused exemption by th»' Military Service Board. Tin union ,dekgates asked the acting Prime Minister to give these men the exemption that had previously been grantnl to men engaged in the essential industry of coal mining. The reply fs understood to have been a definite refusal. The ballotted miners have got to get into camp, if they are fit. When they are th*M, (he Government, if it thinks desirable, may direct the military authorities to ' grant them indefinite'leave in order that they may return to their occupation. But in this event the men would still be soldiers, and so would be subject to military law at any time without further formalities.
The present ground of the dispute ha* been changed by the miners themselves from conscription to wages and conditions, and it may b» assumed confidently that there will 'not be another ittriVe In support of a, general anti-conscription demand. The mine- delegates at present have nothing to say for tho public ear. They are going to wpert to their unions, and the decision an to the next (top may be delayed for somo aayj or some weeks. But the attitude of tho delegates as a body, especially in the latter - stages of the proceedings here, give substantial ground for believing that they would advise their unions to accept an arrangement falling considerably short of their original demands, if they could do so without appearing to suffer defeat.
Your correspondent, who, has had tome >' opportunity for judging of the att'tudi of the parties, docs not believe that the miners are spoiling for a fight, ae some people have represented them to ,be> Their tone is rather that of men whft find that they have overestimated their own strength and underestimated the forces arrayed against them.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19170516.2.23
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1917, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
384THE MINERS' DISPUTE. Taranaki Daily News, 16 May 1917, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.