N.S.W. COAL TROUBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 129, 1 June 1923, Page 4

N.S.W. COAL TROUBLE.

NEW ZEALAND MINERS' HELP MAY BE CALLED FOR. (By Telegraph.—Own Corresponfient.) this day. Although the coal miners in New Zealand have not yet been asked to give assistance, financial or otherwise, to the miners out on strike on the Maitland field, New South Wales, there is a possibility that developments of this nature will soon be made unless the trouble is settled. The miners of the Dominion have a working arrangement with the miners in Australia, whereby mutual aid is available in the event of prolonged strikes, and the organisations in the two countries work in very close association with one another.

By yesterday's Australian mail. Mr. O'Rourke, secretary of the Miners' Federation, New Zealand, received a communication from Mr. Willis, general secretary of tlic Mining Department of the Workers' Industrial Union of Australia dealing with the Maitland strike, and copies of the letter have been pent out to all minors' unions in the Dominion. The letter states that for the present the fight is to l>e confined to the mines now idle on the Maitland field, and that for the purpose of providing relief a levy of 1.3 per cent is to be struck nn wasres receive:! by members of the union. Failing a satisfactory settlement within a reasonable tiino i!ie Miners' Council is to bo called together to determine future action. It was ascertained that the miners in Xew Zealand would he quite v,-iilin£ to render any assistance necessary to Sβ* South Wales' men it an "8.0.5." came from Australia, eithrr by for;vardin2 money or by refusinc to produce coal for export to Australia.