NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9693, 18 January 1910, Page 5

NEWCASTLE STRIKE.

SOUTHERN MINERS' BALLOT,

MINERS APATHETIC. United VresgAssooiation—By Electric Telegraph Copyright. Received January 17, 10.35 a.m. SYDNEY, January 17. The Southern miners were apathetic in the ballot, proportionately very few voting. All the lodges in the Maitland district rejected the Wages Board. Received January 17, 10.22 p.m. SYDNEY, January 17. ' The hearing of the charges against ) Messrs Bowling, Hutton, Butler and O'Connor, was resumed in the IndusI trial Court to day. The evidence of the managers of a number of southern collieries went to show that the agreement between the mine owners and miners expired on March last, but since then they had been working under the old agreement conditions. The witnesses knew of no real grievance the southern men had. The Australian Workers' Union Conference voted relief to the strikers. Received January 18, 12.10 a.m. SYDNEY, January 17. The Southern ballot covered a dual issue. The final result was:—For the Wages Board, 958; against, 855. For the Old Strike Congress, 87?. For Bowling's Congress, 910. Many miners did not vote. This is only the first step towards a settlement of the difficulty. According to the secretary of the Coal Workers' Federation it ia thoroughly understood that the Southerners will not return to work before the Northern men. A representative ot the leading coal company is responsible for the statement that the Northern proprietors will inevitably refuse Mr Bowling's scheme of arbitration, and will accept nothing but the Wages Board under the Industrial Disputes Act.