WAIHI MINING DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 62, 13 March 1919, Page 5

WAIHI MINING DISPUTE.

CONFERENCE WITH MINISTER. COX* ILIATIOX SUGGESTED. (By Telegrapn.—Ov.n Correspondent.) WAIIII, tins day. Tlte Mayor of Waihi, accompanied by the Deputy-Mayor (Cγ. W. .1. Brown), and frs. H. A." Pipe. W. J. Conies, and the towi. clerk (Mr. J. Ritchie), left yesterday for Morrinsville. for the purpose of interviewing the Hon. W. H. Herries. Minister of Labour, in reference to the Waihi miners' dispute. The object of the mission is to comply w'th the request of the Minister to piaoe details before him. A message received this afternoon states that Mr. Herries 'lias agreed to send Mr. Harle Giles, Conciliation Communicator, to AVaihi as soon as his services are available, probably in two da ys' time. in his statement to the Press, Mr. Banks (superintendent of the Waihi Co.) states that at the conference in November last an industrial agreement was drawn up. and it was then agreed that certain men. nine in number, in the employ of mining companies, should be exempted from membership of the union if they did not desire to join, the mine owners at the same time promising to undertake to try and get the men in question to join the union, but not guaranteeing that they would become members. This understanding' was not. and could not properly be embodied in the written agreement, but the names of the men were verially given a little later to the union delegates at their request, one of the members committing the names to paper. CONFERENCE AT WAIHI. (By Telegraph.—Special to ••Star.") WAIHI, this day. Mr. Harle Giles, Conciliation Commissioner, arrives at Waihi by to-day's express, and ■will preside at a conference between the mineowners and the union representatives.