STRIKE CONTINUES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1942, Page 3

STRIKE CONTINUES

HUN!LY MINERS BOYCOTT MEETING ADDRESSED BY MINISTEF? OF MANPOWER. VERY SMALL ATTENDANCE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) HUNTLY, September 20. No more than 52 miners out of an estimated number of 600 residing in the town attended the meeting called in the Huntly Town Hall today. There were several hundreds in the main street, but few of them responded to an appeal by the Minister of Industrial Manpower, Mr A. McLagan. who is also national secretary of the United Mine Workers’ Federation, to come inside the hall and discuss their grievances. Mr McLagan spoke in two places in the street and on each occasion the men dispersed out of earshot. In distinction to the section meetings previously called .a mass meeting will now be held in Huntly tomorrow. The episodes today culminated in a meeting with an opening attendance of about 40 men being addressed by Mr McLagan and officials of the Northern Miners’ Union. It was decided to call a mass meeting of miners in Huntly tomorrow to discuss the dispute and the proposals for a settlement.

With the arrival from Wellington yesterday of Mr McLagan and the local union secretary, Mr T. Hall, speculation on the prospects of a settlement received fresh stimulus. They conferred with members of the union executive, but no official pronouncement was made till late in the evening, when notices calling for separate meetings today were posted outside the town hall. One meeting was for men residing in Huntly, called for 10 a.m., and the others at the Renown Hall. Glen Afton and Glen Massey for the afternoon and night. About 300 men gathered in the Huntly main street by 10 a.m. today, but very few were near the hall. At 10.15 a.m. the attendance in the hall did not exceed 30. More men joined the throng in the street, but no move was made to enter the hall.

A stir ran through the group when Mr McLagan came from the hall at 10.30 a.m., and from the kerbside started to speak. “Men of the Northern Miners’ Union,” he began, when several score of men in the nearest group turned and walked along the street to take up their stand out of hearing; about 40 yards distant. Mr McLagan continued to address the comparative few remaining, and appealed for support of the meeting which, he alleged, was boycotted by arrangement. A voice: “Who called the meeting?” Mr McLagan: “It was called by the union executive and those who say otherwise are lying.” Another voice: “Why don’t you call a mass meeting of men?” Mr .McLagan: “You can come into the meeting and discuss that. It is the proper place to discuss your business, not the street.” A few men joined the others in the hall and Mr McLagan walked about 90 yards up the street and from the footpath opposite the post office began to make a further appeal. Again there was a mass dispersal of the group standing nearby, about 150 men crossing to the other side of the street, where they congregated in a body 50 yards off. Mr .McLagan continued a brief speech, receiving many inaudible interjections. He said he believed there were men who were attempting to wreck the union. He returned to the hall and the meeting resumed shortly before 11 a.m. It continued for nearly an hour. The attendance fluctuated as parties entered and left the hall, and the largest number present was 52. It is stated that there are about 600 miners actually resident in the town. There were about 350 in the everchanging croAvd in the street during the 90 minutes of the episode, but apart from the silent rejection of the advances made to them there were no incidents. The proposed meetings in the other townships were abandoned as the result of a decision at the Huntly meeting. The 182 miners who were sentenced to a month’s jail on Friday remained at liberty over the weekend. It is an open secret that several delegates left the conference yesterday on the issue of the mass meeting, and that the executive’s subsequent decision to hold separate meetings today was not entirely representative. There is a general feeling that the meeting called for tomorrow paves the way for an early resumption of full production.