The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1912. THE WAIHI STRIKE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 215, 7 September 1912, Page 4

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

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1912. THE WAIHI STRIKE.

For the cause that Uusta aMittemoe, For the wrong that needs rtMttane*, For the future in the distance, And the good that we cm* do.

We publish in our correspondence columns- Uniay a letter dealing with the Waihi Strike which seems to us in same ways a very sensibly contribution to the cohtfO'versy: The time hoe certainly come, ac onr correspondent says, to find some reasonable way out of the difficulty which has ruined one of our most flourishing towns and is' paralysing one of our most important industries; and we arc confident that if the worker* and the employ.erg approach the question in a reasonable spirit, some compromise' satisfactory to both parties can be arrived at. Every unprejudiced person must agree with the general principles which our correspondent lave dawn, that any union is justified in cancelling its registration and withdrawing from the jurisdiction- of the Arbitration Court, and "that a"ny union may register if it pleases and secure legal status under the Act. "But there. is one point ou which Mr Biebop is palpably misinformed or mistaken —hie. assumption that the Waihi Company or its manager has put forward "an unreasonable demand to force the miners into the Arbitration Court against their wishes." This is manifestly a misconception of the whole position, and as a misapprehension of this sort may lead to untold harm, it is a positive duty to set out the facts of the case as emphatically" and clearly as possible.

Our corteepondent, -vre say, is absolutely mistaken in imagining that Mr. Rhode 3 or H3 company is preventing ■the miiwTs from going, back to -work-.by laying down any such conditions as this letter suggests.- The miners-can go- back at once if tße'y pleaae.; tb,o mine is in goo.d order above •the tenth level, and there . is no reason, so (far a* thecom- ipany is •concerned, w-hy work should not start again on, Monday. But naturally the Company does not propose- to sacrifice the engine-drivers, and ell that the miners, axe asked to do is to -recognise the Engine-drivers' "Union to .the extent of working alongside ihem. Tliptr 13 not," and never has been, any -suggestion that the minora should be called upon to renounce .their allegiance to the Federation of Labour, and to- register under 'tie Arbitration Act. On fli© other hand, the Company maintains the very principle which. Sir. Bishop has hhnself laid down, that the engine-drivers have a '■right to form their own union and I register if they please, and that the miners ought to be prepared to treat as. a union any labour •organisation recognised .by the law. It is only the Federation of Labour, •with ite obstinate refusal to treat the engine-drivers as fellow "workers, that stands in the way of .prompt and final settlement of the •whole trouble, and it S3 entirely misleading to attempt to throw any share of responsibility for the present deadlock upon the W&ibi Company or Mr. Rhodes. As is well-known, the strike was not called becanse of any dispute as to wages or conditions of labour with the Waihi Company. Most of the work in. the mine. is done under contracts, which ensure the miners better pay than they are likely to obtain under any form -ofr wages agreei ment. Some -of these •contracts are still ' in existence, though unwozked,. and all. - the Tinning; parties who undertook them. : have- tp«dp .in order- to resume work- is tq ~ aQow-themeehiw to be lowered into the,

as good, unionists in the eye of tire law and. in the estimation, of sensible men as are the members of the Federation of Labour. Nor is ait in any way accurate to imply that the Waihi imgnagemmuL expect the nranetß to ■eaten into a- formal agreement with them. Such an agreement would be accepted only if the miners registered

again .under the Arbitration. Act; bat it is one of the leading tenets of the PVaderaifchm of Labour 'that tihe wockers ahotdd.- not enter into- euch. agreements with iherr employers. "We repeat that

aH tihe miners have to do is to consent to - work aknigsidie -tih© engme-dirivera. Ami this ie pneaseiy wtaait they are doing ■in other parts of the Dominion, At Bnwtly, for example, there jure at present 10 men "who have joined the Enginedrivers'. Union which caused the trouble at WtaiM by registering under the Arbitration Act, ■working in the mines side by side "wrbh "the members of tone Federation, of Labour, and on perfectly amicable 'terms -with them. At Iteinijflrton again, ac Mr. Bishop himself explains, th« engiTße-diriveTe havo form-pd a. separate Tntkm, and. th<! miners who an? afltUatod to tlit; >\)deraition of Labour work alongside them, without any illwill. And Mr Bishop even saves us the trouble of defending the engine-drivers by pointing out that, ac their work is , really distinct from that of the miners i and is subject in some ways to different ! regulations, they have formed their union ; not out of antagonism to the miners but i with the natural' desire to look after ! their own industrial interests. >«ow, if 1 all this is true on the West Coast, why lis it not equally true in Auckland district; and if the members of the Federation of Labour find no difficulty in working amicably with the members of engine-drivers' unions at Dermiston and Hnntly, why should there be any trouble about it at Waihi ? The time has passed for pressing -the point raised by ,Mr Bishop as to whether the enginedrivors were justified in forming a. separate union before the agreement with the Federation had expired. Our correspondent, as a member of the Federation, admits that the existence of a separate union now no longer involves a necessary breach with the Federation, and the question whether the union was formed ii few weeks earlier than it shouM have bren seems to us a. very small matter to haggle over, and in view of the facts, that we have set forth, we still hope that the majority of the miners at Waihi will- see» their way to adopt the reasonable course followed by other

members of. the Federation ai Denniston and Huntly, and concede, to thp enginedrivers the rights they undoubtedly enjoy under the protection of the law.