The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1921. ANOTHER COAL TROUBLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 January 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 17, 1921. ANOTHER COAL TROUBLE.

No sooner is one trouble settled as between the coal miners and the owners than another crops up. The dispute at Blackball, Which appears to have been under discussion since November last, has come to a head, and during this time the miners have been “going slow.” Alleged victimisation is a cause that has produced a crisis on more than one occasion. It was stated that the dispute was narrowed down to two men, one of whom the company is willing to reinstate, but the other (Henderson) has been refused reinstatement on any condition, it being alleged that he was “admittedly guilty of foul and filthy language” towards one of the company’s staff, but this is denied by the union. The company not only resents the go slow policy of .the men, but demands its immediate cessation, and the reply of the Union and Federation to this is “they will fight to the last ditch against victimisation.” The position, therefore, is that the miners throughout the Dominion have decided to take united action as from to-day, so that unless a settlement is arrived at by mediation the industrial and transport activities of the country will once more be seriously curtailed just when some of the leeway was being made up. The attitude taken up by the miners is equivalent to an edict that no man can be dismissed without the consent of the union. If the employers are content to allow the men to dictate by coercion then they might as well close the mines, and force the State to apply a remedy. The Federation’s secretary claims that the miners feel they have taken every possible means of settling the dispute, and apparently that means they have resorted to direct action. The trouble is so paltry that the marvel is the men are not ashamed to magnify it into a crisis. To claim that the refusal to reinstate Henderson is victimisation is the limit of absurdity. The whole trouble represents merely another fight for domination, and the sooner it is ended the better it will be for the country as a whole.