THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912. MASTERS AND WORKMEN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10636, 15 May 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912. MASTERS AND WORKMEN.

Dwellers in the .sparsely-populated Diomuifion of New Zealand can harlly form an adequate kh% of the effc.;'. of the recent English ccal strike, when the miners out of work were «•:- mericallly erfual to th? wihole poou'aickm- of New Zra.land. It was probaV.y the greatest strike over recorded, in. point of numbers of jledjllo directly affected. But it wafi more than that it was, paradoxical 'though it may appear, an event that brought to light the strength and grandeur of ' the character cf the Brifeh workmen and of the B.iitiyh masters a l !ike. ..Dealing with this 'subject, a writer in the Daily Mail says:— The most surprising feature of the past three wee!:-; has been the fortitude with which i''e great hody of the people througho'it the er-vuitrv have .stood the severe strain. The distress, the displacement of labour, and the loss to have been enormous. But the permanent damage- done ha,s certainly l -it been so great as everyone feared. In most parts outside the coal trade, employers and men have come together iand luwo laced the black situation in the spirit of friendly co-operation. Take, for example, Swinton. Jhe Great Western Railway Compan-, win oh fe. the chief employer of la'boir itliciV, set itself seriously to minimise the upset. Where there was any wo". L : to lis© dr.it*> it iv.w (•.■.'■uttered over as many moil as possible. Most of those entitled to "animal leave* wero girwi theiir .lci'.ve ihiv.i.i'n place of later. a.U efforts were made to see that ce'y •man canned something a. week: eve'-ri hough very few could bnvn their full wage. What was true in Swinton was true elsewhere. Prom the North of England we hea,r of employers maYng gtauts to their meM, of firms paying iwages ahead 'of imci, and the like. There are probably 'this week some 800, OHO hirii, women, and boys out of work in the country directly becanie of the strike, and as-many more ag.r.n oiii short' time. These figu:res do not include the miners • them selves or those eniiplnyed around the muc?. When future generations look hack at England during the past few weeks they will isa'y that the orderliness :rd patience of the people was one c'\ the greatest possible proofs of the" <irations!] strength and vitality.