MINERS' STRIKES.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18369, 30 April 1925, Page 6

MINERS' STRIKES.

TALE OF A COAT.

(FSOM OtJB OWH COBHESrOHDENT.)

SYDNEY, April 23

Montaigne, it is recorded, always wound up the year's account of his expenses with this little entry: "*'or my abominable habit of idleness, a thousand livres." If the coalminers of this State, with whom strikes are a positive habit, wound up their year's account as Montaigne did. and reflected quietly on the degree to which strikes have eaten into their • pockets and family comfort, and on some ot the extraordinary causes of this idleness, they would be staggered. So Gilbertian are the circumstances surrounding; some of these strikes that it is hard to credit them. ■ln one of the mines, a few days ago, a man at the pit bottom wanted an oilskin coat, and was promised one. As it had not come to hand straight away he was offered an overcoat during the morning. as a temporary substitute. The story, which has not been denied, is that he refused to wear it because it was not new. The upshot was that the pit was rendered idle. At another mine a roadman wanted to take the place ot a miner who was away ill. The request was not acceded to, and the pib was thrown idle. Yet thesa men, like the man who lives upon his capital instead of on the interest, probably sometimes wonder why they are poor, and look with contempt upon those whose enterprise and industry enable them to enjoy a few of the sweets of life.