NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9667, 4 December 1909, Page 5

NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

| SITUATION CRITICAL. j SETTLEMENT OR CATACLYSM. United Press Association—Electrio Telegraph Copyright. Received December 3, 10.15 a.m. SYDNEY, December 3. The Labour Party Caucus formulated a proposal for a settlement of the strike. The nature of that proposal is a secret. It will be submitted to the Strike Congress to-day. Mr Hughes states that the situation is critical, and that everything depends on the next twenty-four hours whether there will be a settlement or a great industrial cataclysm.

FRUITLESS INTERVIEWS. Received December 3, 10.15 a.m. SYDNEY, Decembers. Mr Wade's interviews with Messrs Learmonth and H'ighes were fruit less. Action will be taken to-day to appoint a board under the Industrial Disputes Act to deal with the trouble. Although the Strike Congress decided that the Palermo's coal should be handled, the Coal Lumpers' Union is not altogether satisfied, holding that the importation of coal is a b;ov at the Southern mines, which have a contract to supply the Peninsular steamers. i

MANY PERSONS IDLE IN MELBOURNE.

Received December 3, 10.15 a.m. MELBOURNE, December 3. There are 3,000 persons idle in the city through the strike, and as many more are working short time.

Received December 3, 10.50 p.m. SYDNEY, lecember3. In the Industrial Court, the President (Mr Justice Heydon) read a letter from Mr Wade officially informing him that all efforts to affect a settlement in the i:oal trouble by conference or secure an appointment of a board under the Industrial Dispute Act had proved futile. Mr Vvade conveyed this, his official information, in order that Mr Justice Heydon might consider the desirability of taking any further action he thought necessary in the public interest under the powers conferred by the Industrial Disputes Act. Mr Justice Keydon announ ed that a Newcastle Colliers Board would be appointed to dej} with the mat'er of the dispute. He adjourned the matter till Saturday morning for the apoinfment of the board. The Lumpers' Union, after a protracted discussion, decided by a large majority not to work the Palermo's coal. The P. and 0. Company, this afternoon, started the c-ew of the Palermo to unload the coal, which is being placed in tiie bunkers of the liner Macedonia by her crew. The Railway Department has intimaced that it will require the whole of the the Ebbw Main and Young Wallaend pits. The management <o isidered the price offered by the Department inadequate, and unless better terms are offered they threaten to close the mines.