NEWCASTLE AND AFTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 69, 22 March 1910, Page 7

NEWCASTLE AND AFTER.

THE STRIKE EBSUITS. •

(From an Australian Correspondent.)

_.. SYDNEY, March 12. The Newcastle-strike is definitely over, and the men return to work on March 14, after a little more than four months* idleness. For the last fortnight Newcastle papers have been hinting that the j strike -was really a lock-out, since the | men were willing to return to work on the old —upon any' old terms. For the last week Sydney paper- kept repeating the hint. The Press has power; and the aloof proprietors came suddenly | to agreement.

The pits open; the men go hack; the Board investigates. A score .of men whose places have bee filled must find another job. Perhaps two score made ■unnecessary by the introduction of coalmachinery in one pit, will he employed in other pits a3 opportunity offers. i The industry readjusts itself,- the great coal strike is overfor the time being. Only for the time being. The men's grievances, or alleged grievances, remain; the feeling of antagonism between men and masters is more bitter than ever. The memory of friends and leaders in gaol, the memory' of Peter Bowling in irons, exists to intensify r it. The wellmeaning Conciliation Board has commenced the long task of inquiring into forty sets of conditions in forty pits, and finding a reasonable common rule of emwith variations that will please both sides, in each case. Both masters and men appear hostile to the Board, hopeless of its help.- The BoaTd itself appears hopeless. With arbitrary powej; but without prestige, and amid general i ill-will, it does painfully the best tho chairman can. The strike has failed according to ; pro-' ; phecy. Nearly everything is "as you were," but four months have been wasted, I the industrial profit •of four months has •been lost, the loss stretch— away into the future. The proprietors' remain masters of the situation. Yet note that the men, ; also, on their side, are equal masters of the situation, and are admit—d to he. The battle is drawn. The proprietormaintain their position; but they gain I nothing. No attempt was made to fill the places of the strikers. The mines j stood idle, waiting their pleasure to return. It was conceded that any attempt to fill their places was impracticable, useI less. That being so, it is evident thai i when the men leave their job, and their job is perforce kept open for them, the i essential power is really with the men. I The law against strikes has not been enforced, and admits a simi— impotence ■in face of massed thousands. 'The I meshes of its net catch the herring, but the whale breaks through The law I against strike-promoters has imprisoned j several men for two months, three for eight months, one for two and a-half j years. And in so doing it has put steel I into the hearts of ten thousand men to

resist the law, or to evade it, or to use their votes to end it. Every gaoled strike leader is a Labour spur to the polls, a spur to many Lahour sympathisers to cast a wavering vote. The Premier's New Zealand reference to " mob-law and disorder" has not been warranted. In all the months, with all the idle men, two assaults have been reported, - neither of moment. So peaceful a strike probably could not be carried. on anywhere else in - -the world. Even the arrest of strike-leaders in the | middle of a crowd of a thousand excited j sympathisers failed to cause an angry ! blow. " j For the rest, the men's pockets are I empty, their helts are drawn tight, their I families are on short rations, their heads i hang down. After the winter they will j be as independent as ever. And the i strike has shown that they are as essen- : tial as the mines to the community's coal j supply.