BANNED BY POLICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1942, Page 3

BANNED BY POLICE

MASS MEETING OF HUNTLY MINERS

PUKEMIRO MEN TO APPEAR IN COURT. CHARGES OF BEING PARTIES TO ILLEGAL STRIKE (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, September 15. There was considerable stir and excitement at Huntly today when the police, acting under the Public Safety Emergency Regulations. 1940, banned a mass meeting of the Waikato miners, at which they proposed to discuss the issues causing and arising from the strike. The only other development locally was the decision of the mon at the Wilton mine to cease work, thus reverting to the position obtaining last Friday with all the mines idle. Arrangements to hold a mass meeting in the Lyceum Theatre at 2 p.m. were made on Monday night, and early this morning men came in from the outlying mines. By 1.30 p.m. several hundred men had assembled in the vicinity of the theatre and a rumour that the meeting was to be prohibited followed by the appearance of police officers in uniform and plain, clothes created a stir of excitement Eight members of the union executive proceeded to the police station, and on returning posted a notice outside the hall stating that the meeting had been banned. Resentment and regret were freely expressed and suggestions were made that an outdoor meeting be arranged. Nothing was done on the executive members explaining that the ban covered all meetings.

Throughout the afternoon the main street was thronged as groups of men lingered discussing the situation and expectantly awaiting information regarding the outcome of the visit of the Minister of Industrial Manpower, Mr McLagan. and the union secretary, Mr T. Hall, to Wellington. Well-infor-med observers say that had the meeting been held today much of the confusion might have been dispelled, and that it would have been no surprise had the men decided to abrogate all the ballot and other decisions and vote for an immediate return to work. Union officials declined to discuss the position, but there is everywhere the frank admission that the present situation cannot be permitted to continue, and that a speedy solution to the impasse must be found. The serving of summonses on 196 of the Pukemiro miners, citing them with being parties to an illegal strike, was practically completed by the local police today. The men are called to appear in Court at Huntly on Thursday. It is expected the charges will be taken on masse and that the Town Hall will probably be converted into a court, as the courthouse is too small.

ACTION OF MINERS

DENOUNCED BY MR SULLIVAN. ATTACK ON THE NATIONAL WAR EFFORT. WELLINGTON. This Day. “I ask full support for the Government from all true New Zealanders—every responsible-minded man and woman in the nation—for all action the Government finds it necessary to take to meet the situation,” said the ActingPrime Minister, Mr Sullivan, yesterday commenting on the refusal of Waikato coal miners to return to work. “The steps necessary may mean further deprivation, but the people will prefer to endure and suffer, if need be, to the extent necessary rather than surrender to either the internal or external aggressor, each of whom equally threatens the security of the nation. Mr Sullivan said that the attitude of the men in refusing in the. presentemergency to produce coal —a commodity vitally essential to the operation of the military and supply transport system —had exactly the same effect as the torpedoing of a Now Zealand supply ship by the Japanese on the high seas and the same reaction for the public as though the sinking of the vessel had been done by a New Zealand bombing plane with a fifth column crew. The capacity of New Zealand to fight the war, preserve the country against aggression and invasion, and to protect the people of New Zealand —men, women and children —against Japanese brutality was enfeebled by the action of an irresponsible minority, said Mr Sullivan. That was the measure of the miners’ responsibility. They were-par-tially paralysing the railway system which carried supplies necessary for men who were fighting and dying in the Pacific for the defence of New Zealand and its people. The miners concerned had made the decision to do this thing not in ignorance or with their eyes shut. The whole truth was told them at their meeting. “All New Zealanders throughout the length and breadth of our threatened homeland will know from what 1 have said what the Waikato miners are doing to them and will quickly find the only word which describes such conduct,” continued Mr Sullivan. “They have defied their own union’s governing rules, their own miners’ executive, the Federation of Labour, and, above all, the Government of the country. They have disregarded the desperate need of the nation at war.”

The output for the half-year amounted to 1,312,009 tons, an increase of 33,986 tons compared with the same period in 1941, the Minister of Mines (Mr Webb) stated last night. There was an improvement in the output per miner employed underground of 18.7 tons, and in the output per miner on the payroll there was an increase of 13.1 tons over the 1941 figures. There was an increase in coal exported of 8480 tons, and a decrease of 10,748 tons in the quantity imported. “It is a crying shame,” said Mr Webb, “that such an excellent- record should be marred by the action of the Waikato men, who have allowed themselves to be led into revolt against their own organisations and the Government.”

LAW TO BE ENFORCED

STATEMENT BY MR HOLLAND. WELLINGTON, This Day. “This is a time for the strongest action,” said the deputy-chairman of the War Cabinet and Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, in a statement, last night, on the Waikato coal strike. “I want to assure the public that the law will be observed and that those who break it will be dealt with fearlessly and firmly. There can be no thought of any arrangement that interferes with the processes of the law by which those who break it are punished. The Acting-Prime Minister has issued a statement on behalf of the Government and I need only add that the forces of lawlessness have again challenged the authority of government and that the question of who is to rule this country must be settled once and for all.” Mr Holland stated that the question of the strike was now being handled by the War Cabinet which had had

conferences with other Ministers immediately concerned—Messrs Webb, McLagan and Broadfoot.

MILITARY SERVICE

LIABILITY OF STRIKING MINERS. WELLINGTON. This Day. The position of striking Waikato miners whose military service had been postponed because they were engaged in the essential production of coal is to be reviewed. An announcement to this effect was made last night by the Minister of National Service, Mr Broadfoot. “Because by their own act- they have ceased to be actively engaged in that industry, appeal boards _ will now automatically bring on their cases for review aS the grounds upon which postponement of service has been granted no longer exists,” said the Minister. . ••The cases are now’ entirely in the hands of the Armed Forces Appeal Boards, which are the only bodies vested with the power of determining whether persons should or should not perform military service ”