RE-OPENING OF THE MINE.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14473, 30 September 1912, Page 8

RE-OPENING OF THE MINE.

THE MEN AVAILABLE.

(special to "the press.")

WAIHI, September 28

One would hardly bo justified in making any definite assertions on the question of the readiness of miners and others in or near Waihi to resume work at the earliest moment they can do so with what they woiild term clean hands. It is, nevertheless, a significant fact that what appears to be an influx of capable looking working mes, has set in to-day. There are some whose opinion must be regarded as carrying a certain amount of weight who bring reports from outside that there are scores of ex-Waihi men who left in the early stages of the strike rather than endure enforced idleness on strike pay subscribed by workers in other places, who are waiting for a chance to get back. It is said that there are numbers of old Waihi men working at the Waikato electric transmission works, and that these men have expressed a_ desire to.return to their work in the mines at Waihi. One hears from time to time of more and more practical miners who have definitely stated their intention of being on hand on Wednesday. It has to be remembered also that a large proportion of the eighty or so free labourers now engaged at Waikino are expert miners, and these are ready to resume work underground. But there is another side to the picture—the certainty that there are a couple of hundred or more men who will not entertain tho idea of resuming work until the oripinal difficulty has been smoothed over. That difficulty, it need hardly be mentioned, is the officially expressed determination of the Miners' Union not to work side by side with'a union registered under the Arbitration Act. To men who are stubbornly wedded to the belief that the existence of an Arbitration Union is fatal to the best interests of their own union, tho necessity of being lowered to their work by engine-drivers who are Arbitrationists, presents an insuperable obstacle. There is no attempt made by anyone concerned in the dispute to avoid these obvious facts. Consent to resume work as things are at present would mean unconditional surrender on the part of the miners. Some of the latter express their opinion of the new union and its mombers with exceeding coarseness of epithet. Others, who, in common fairness, it should be stated, are in the majority, do not indulge in abusive personalities, but declare no less forcibly their profound conviction that only by one big union of all departments of mine-workers can tfie interests of those workers be effectively conserved. That is tho position as it is to-day. The Waihi mine will be.open on Wednesday for ; resumption of work. A number of men, including skilled underground workers, will be in attendance to take up the work that is offering. One cannot help feeling at times tbat the wish is father to the thought -when one notices the optimism in thoi frequent assurances of tho townspeople that after Wednesday the striWTwill be ended. One may be justified-in assuming that it will be the beginning of tho end, but it is not unreasonable to suggest that, considering all the circumstances, there are weary times ahead for Waihi.