THE COAL STRIKE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14325, 10 April 1912, Page 8

THE COAL STRIKE.

j The coal strike is practically over, but ; it will be some little time before the disturbed machinery of industry is running smoothly again, and it will be (Still longer before the effects of this i gigantic industrial disturbance wear off. The men have gained the principle of the minimuni wage, which is to bo put into operation through the medium of District Boards, but they ! won that at the beginning of the ' struggle. The later weeks, of the strike have been sheer waste. On the __lcbit side, of the account are the

the community, an estimate of which appears in our cable news to-day. Six millions in miners' wages, and two millions in trnde union funds and personal savings; eight millions iv other workers' wages. £50.000,000 to the v.-hole community, such is the price of a minimum wage that will benefit

only twenty or twenty-five per cent of the miners, for the rest of them have been getting more than the particular wage, asked for. Add to this loss the future falling away iv the coal export trade, and in trade generally m, a result of the dislocation of industry, and how long will it take for the higher wages to aggregate the total eosi of the strike to tiie nation r We do not yet know what the effect of the .Minimum Wage Act 'will lie. Some of the owners declare that it will ruin tiie industry, or portions of il, and the margin of prolit in some pits is so small that this prediction may bo partly fulfilled. It will certainly raise, the price of coal. Already » permanent rise of Is lid to 2s per ton in household coal is predicted, iind doubtless steam coal will also advance. (Such a rise niav seem

.small to some people, but it assumes its true proportions when we find that the count ry eoiiMimes over 170.000,000 tons

in :i year. An ji'h'nnee must 'lie: rcfleeti.'tl in the en.st of livinjx, which is uliv-i'ly pre.sbing with tragic severity on inilli.ins. And after nil this lass mid mi..eiy caused liy the strike, industrial pence lias not been secured. There is talk of another rn.il strike if tho District Hoards do not satisfy ' tho men, and nf a .strike by tho transport jvorkerti in the early summer. However, it. is tho men's leaders who say these tilings, not the men who have borne, tho burden of the .struggle, and •it. is to bo hoped that those who have suffered in tlio hnnl.ground will overbear those who have fared better and worked in tho limelight.

We have decided to close on Saturday "The Press" fund for tho relief of tho women and children who are starving at Homo as tiie result, of the miners' strike. We trust, therefore, that our reader*; will send in beforo that date whatever they may intend to give, so that we may be able to cable Home a satisfactory sum-as representing the measure of Canterbury's pity for the plight of the innocent sulferer.s. In two or three weeks wo shall be getting the full reports of the painful condition of affairs caused by the strike and the consequent suspension of industries, and wo believe the details will bo such a« to wring tho hearts of all who read them. If thoso reports were available now, tho fund would, we have no doubt, soon mount up to thousands instead of hundreds, ami when they aro published it. will bo somo consolation to those who havo subscribed to know that they have done something to relievo distress so terrible and so widespread as to bo ulmost beyond belief,

We have received a letter from a correspondent who wishes to point out to the pro pie of New Zealand" what be is pleased to call their ''foolish generosity " in giving largo sums of money to the starving wives and children of the striking miners in England. We will not print it in full, because we believe even the writer would bo ashamed of it when he saw it in cold print. Briefly, he argues that tho transport strikes of last year did damage to the value of thousands of pounds to the producers in New Zealand, that the miners did wrong in striking, and that they now want tho public to help pay for their indiscretion.

We havo already pointed out that it is not only tiie wives and children of the striking miners who are in want, but the wives and children of thousands of other workers who had nothing to do with the strike, but wero thrown out of work by the fact that coal was not obtainable for tbe industries in which they wetre engaged. Our cable messages this morning put the loss of wages among these innocent sufferers at eight millions storl. ling. It is impossible to imagine the amount of suffering that this loss represents among a class that is always, perforce, living from hand to mouth. But even if the appalling destitution reported were confined to the wives and children of the coalminers who actually struck, surely our correspondent would not contend, in cold blood, that it is right that these poor creatures should suffer tho extremities of cold and famine, because, their men folk acted foolishly in standing out for what they believed to be their rights, He need not he afraid that any money now sent to save women and children from starvation will encourage the -trine, for that is practically at an end, but even if it were not, we do not believe that our correspondent would say, on reflection, that striking is such a deadly crime that not only the strikers, but their wives and little children, should be allowed to die from starvation without a hand being stretched out to help thorn. We hope that our correspondent, on thinking the matter over, will thank us for not publishing his letter, and will send us a donation towards the fund.

Our contemporary, the "New Zealand Herald,"' perpetrated a very pretty piece of unconscious humour the other day. Once or twice a week it publishes some topical pictures under the heading "Illustrated Odds and Ends." and on the occasion under notice tbe first picture, immediately under the title, was. appropriately enough, a group photograph of the new Ministry!

Our correspondents who dealt in yesterday's issue with tho Canal Commissioners' report, return to the subject again to-day. Mr Joshua Little's commendable and thoughtful regard for our space tied him, as he now explains, to omit a vital point in his first letter. It appears that he does not advocate a canal to connect Christchurch with the sea. hut the immediate electrification of the Christchurch-Lyttelton line, We trust, by tiie way, that he is wrong in assuming that the power from Lake Coleridge will not be available for five years. Eighteen months was the time mentioned some little time i\_o by tho then Minister for Public Works. " Mr Chrystall-assorts roundly that tho Commissioners' report has not shaken tho

H-henie. "\y P can 0)1 | v say t ], at j- ie really believes that, lie should find no difficulty in believing anything. lint <,n one matter of fact he i< absolutely wrong. So far from the Commission being instigated l.v the opponents of the Cartal. "with 11 v \ ow . t<J &t, ' ln t!,fl ti<io ~f public opinion' in it s favour, the resolution in regard to the appointment of the Commission was moved and. seconded by two pi the strongest advocates of the Canal on the Harbour Board, and was accepted by the other members as offering the hope that the report would settle the fpiestion ono way or tho other. It did so. with such effectiveness that the Canal League may as well put up its shutters and keep them

Mr Grahame-White, who has. just escaped uninjured from an aeroplane accident, is not nowadays so much before rite public eye as he was a year or so ago. He was one of the earliest British aviators to qualify for a "pilotV certificate, and the year in which ho secured this distinction, 1010. saw him hap suddenly into fame as one of the most skilful and most daring of the English flying-men. He was beaten by Panlhan in tlio London-to-.Manchester flight for the prize of CIO.OOO. given liy the "Daily Mail." but he made a gallant bid for victory, and achieved tho performance of being the first aviator to ascend in darkness. He won over J_<>ooo in prizes at Harvard, and many important events at the .New York aviation meeting, including the £oflO Gordon-Bennett Cup. He has done much to prove the value of tho aeroplane for .scouting purposes in wartime. Of late he has been carrying on a school of aviation, for which he received a number of pupils at 100 and 1-50 guineas each. He also established an aeroplane factory, in which his training a« an engineer and his taste for flying should hare found full scope. As an aviator, ..Ir Grahame-White, who is in his thirty-third year, has been very fortunate in escaping the serious casualties which have befallen so many of the craft.