THE WAIHI DISPUTE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 74, 27 March 1919, Page 5

THE WAIHI DISPUTE.

I PROBABLE WAT OUT. COMPANY MAKES AN OFFER. APPROVAL BY UNION OFFICIALS. Inquiry at the office of the Waihi G.M.; Co. to-day elicited the information that there are no new developments in connection with the Waihi trouble. A telegram was received yesterday from th* representatives of the Ohinemuri Mines and Batteries Employees' Union intimating that they were prepared to recommend to the members the suggestion made by Mr. Charles Rhodes, local direotor of the company, through the Mayor of Waihi. This waa to the effect that a way out of the present dispute might be found in the union placing the names of the exempted men on its roll without those men actually making application for membership, the company paying the necessary fees and levies on their behalf. Mr. Rhodes then wrote the following letter to the president of the union: "In response to your telegram of this morning, indicating that the union was dieposed to favour my suggested solution of the existing difficulty about the seven exempted men, namely, that you place their names upon your roll of members without written application, on our vat , dertaking to pay their entrance fees, dues, and legal levies, other than strike levies, I telegraphed as follows: 'To settle existing dispute, I confirm offer madethrough Mayor of Waihi to pay entrance fees, dues and legal levies of the seven exempted men as members of your union, while they continue in the employ of Waihi Company, if you place them on your roll as members without their written application. Of course a strike would cancel this offer. Please inform Mr. O'Rourke- , This letter will serve to confirm the above offer, which will, I trust, bring to an end the present dispute between employees of my company. You will, of course, understand that this proposal drops in case of no settlement, or of a strike arising out of it, and that we do not include strike levies."