The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1905. THE NEWCASTLE COAL STRIKE

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 14, 17 January 1905, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1905. THE NEWCASTLE COAL STRIKE

W*rUm oasM tUU War tike wrome thmt mm* i hlilmh, '*m*9mgm4 that we em 4a,

Ever since the New South Wales Arbitration Court decided that it was permissible for the coal mining companies to reduce the selling price of coaL and therefore to lower the wages of their employees, discontent has been seething throughout* the coal industry. The reductions were supposed to come into force as from January Ist of this year, and the great majority of the Newcastle and Maitland heweis decided to accept the lower scale. As we have previously pointed out, the companies Sad for some time past been paying wages on a scale based on the assumption that coal was selling for 10/ per ton , whereas the market price was 8/ or less, and the hewers were wise enough to understand that if this went on indefinitely they would toe* more than the masters. But the wheelers did not admit that their wages should have been decreased, and they refused to accept the 10 per cent, reduction decreed by the Arbitration Court. Within the first week of the New Year all the wheelers in twelve of the Newcastle collieries were on strike, and this meant that nearly 6000 miners . were standing idle- The strikers held a mesa meeting, and decided to stand their ground in defiance of the Arbitration Court's award, and war was thus openly declared upon the Arbitration system. The position of the Arbitration Court in relation to this strife is perfectly dear, and the law provides that the awards of the Coert shall be enforced by heavy penalties. However, very serious difficulty has been experienced in setting the law in motion. At the out set the position of the proprietors was seriously weakened by the action of the Hetton colliery, which offered to take back the wheelers at last year's wages. In spite of this "break-away," however, the majority of the employers were resolute, and the Attorney-General decided to take legal proceedings against* the hewers. The Premier warned the strikers that they must not expect that the Arbitration Court awards would be enforced against the masters and not against the men, and the Arbitration Court granted the application of the Attorney-General for leave to prosecute the obdurate wheelers. But the wheelers were by no meant* dciescelesa, for the Northern Colliery Employees' Federation promptly applied in chambers lor a rule nisi prohibiting the Arbitration Court from compelling the strikers to return to work. The application was successful. The ground on which the writ was applied for was that "wheelers" are not miners, aad that the Arbitration Court has no power to compel any but miners and their employers to obey its decrees. The Attorney-General .was thus for the time prevented from pursuing the strikers by the ordinary processes of law. But the Crown Soticftor holds that the rule nisi does not in any way conflict with the Crown's power to issue a summons against the strikers, and 31 summonses have consequently been served on strikers, who are to supply the material for a test case. It ie a very pretty legal point, but there certainly seems to be some grave defect in the machinery by which toe ArpttxatwHi Court is supposed to protect its powers. During last week the wheelers held another meeting, and decided to stand or fall together, pledging each ether not to return to work under the new scale unless all were reinstated. At present matters are at a standstill, pending the trials; but more than 4000 men are "out ,, in the Newcastle district*, and the loss in wages and coal during the last fortnight is said to amount to £14,000. As a means of setting industrial disputes strikes are the most extravagant and irrational of all the methods that LsJjour can use; and jt is very unfortunate for the New South Wales coal trade that this difficulty has arisen, just when the industry is struggling against heavy foreign competition, and its prospects are at a very low ebb. The Arbitration system ie intended to obviate strikes, and it ie doubly unfortunate that this strike should have originated m a deliberate determination to defy the authority of the Arbitration Court. Arbitration is still on its trial in Australia, where its record is less satisfactory than in New Zealand, and it has had already to hear the brunt of a great deal of adrene critietan. But till both employer and employee appreciate the indubitabU truth tfeat the

uww»i of all arhrttataon is compromise, and that either aide must be prepared to make mutual concessions to the other, the diitaea of the Arbitration Court become impossible. As to the action of the wheelers in this matter of the reduction of wages, there seems to be no doubt that the selling rate had really fallen, and the fact that the hewers admitted this is a strong argument in favour of the wheelers accepting the sliding scale. But, whatever the value of their arguments may have been, when once the case was submitted to the Arbitration Court, it was the manifest duty of the wheelers to abide by the Court's decision. If an Arbitration Court ever abuses its powers, it is always possible to find some constitutional remedy for its defects. But to reject its awards at once reduces the system to a farce, and we fear that the New South Wales wheelers will alienate a great deal of sympathy from the cause of Labour by taking upon themselves to defy a Court which was set up chiefly on their behalf, merely because its award has been adverse to them, or, at least, has not met with any degree of favour in their eyes.