ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13596, 3 December 1909, Page 7

ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE.

A UNIQUE INDUSTRIAL SITUATION.

(-T.OM OUR AUSTRALIAN CORRESPONDENT.) SYDNEY, November 23. The New South Wales coal strike commenced on Bth November. It passed its first crisis on loth November, when Mr W. M. Hughes, M.P., representing the Commonwealth Labour Party, swayed the affiliated unions against a general strike. It passed its second crisis on 22nd November, when the New South Wales Government t escinded the Commissioners of Railways' order that railway carriage of coal was to stop. The struggle is now resolving itself into a direct contest between Newcastle colliers and th© col-liery-owners joined in the Newcastle Coal Vend. They resemble nothing so much as two goats with horns interlocked fighting on the edge of a precipice. The second risk of involving tho whole botfly of unions, and more, the whole vast body of labourers and sym pathisers, in what is really only ihe quarrel of one trade, in one district, came suddenly. Yesterday morning >t was announced that the Commissioner for Railways had given instructions that coal was not to bo carried except for railway purposes. Yesterday night, after twelve hours of grave suspense, the Acting-Premier announced that these instructions would not bo carried out. No step more injudicious could well be conceived. Mr Hughes quite correctly characterised it as the act of a man who applies the matc-h to a powder magazine. Understand that the number of men unemployed by reason of the strike has now risen probably to 20,000. Understand that probably three-fourths of the number have wives and families, and many of them large families; for the miner is a good father, and rocks the community's cradle valiently. Understand that probably ten thousand families are on short commons, that prob ably five thousand aro living from day to day on insufficient strike doles, eked out with storekeepers' scanty credit, and with begging, borrowing and occa sionally (in the Newcastle district) stealing. (A man'from Newcastle told mc that in his neighbourhood residents with a few hens have already realised that they live in a state of war, and it is no longer safe to leave unconsidered trifles in the backyard.) Understand that colliers are colliers; that is, they are among tno manliest, thick-est-headed, most intractable, and most worthy classes of the community. Understand that the Newcastle strikeleaders nave told the men that to refuse work is no crime, that a man hat* a right to live, that there is a human law higher than the law of Parliaments, and that the man who starvos or lets his children starve while he cau stretch out a hand for food is . a coward and a fool. (Mr Peter Bowling's reported speeches come to that, and I have information of similar a-1-vice tendered by another union official.) Understand that tho dogma just cited would be endorsed by near'y every unionist in Australia, and that unionism in Australia represents the opinion of fully one-third of Australian manhood. Understand that Australians generally have a keen sense of justice, and that the instinct of "a fair fight" is bred in the- bones of the community. Then you will understand how doltish was the diplomacy that urged the Government openly to take the employers' side in an industrial conflict still sub judice. If the two "miners' mines" start working, and continue working, the result urxm the strike will be interesting. For the Newcastle Colliery Proprietors' Association, which includes, but do_>s not corresnond with the Newcastle Coal Vend, is united only by self-in-terest and it may soon seem to be the interest of other proprietors to join those who have broken away. Then the southern and western miners, who struck only in sympathy with tho northern men at Newcastle, may -ecommence work as a natural corollary of the Newcastle plan. The southern men on the whole pot on fairly with their emplo3'ers; and in the southern district many of the men are purchasing homes by pay-day instalments on security given by the mine-owners. As a class, too, they are quiet family men, with no faith in the benefit of strikes, and with » keen- sense of the value >f wages. The westerners are reailv off Most of the western overseers are in sympathy with the men and use their influence to gain easy conditions oi labour. A legal agreement upon outstanding prievances has been recently reached, and little more than confirmation was needed when the men went out. So the strike-leaders have in vi<nv a condition of things in w"hic : i ali th* mines but those controlled i-y tho Newcastle Coal Vend will be working w_.il* the Newcastle miners unemployed will be supported by a fund derived from the southern and western unions, from the other pym•nathetin unions in Australia and Zealand, and from t*e strike-shared profit on particular Newcastle mine*-, outside the vend, with a product sold at coal-famine prices.

REPORTED STRIKE ON MELBOURNE WHARVES.

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TEL-GSAM.) AUCKLAND, December 2. A private cable, received by a shipping firm, states that the wharf labourers at Melbourne are out on strike, and that ships are not discharging.

(special to "the press.") DUNEDIN, December 2. Owing to the coal strike at Newcastle, the Union Steam Ship Company announce that they have been compelled reluctantly to 'abandon the Makura's projected trip to the West Coast Sounds from Sydney. Passengers were booking freely, and much disappointment has been expressed on the other side, but a considerable number of those who had intended to gJ will make the trip in the Waikare, sailing from Dunedin.