BLACKBALL STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 169, 10 April 1908, Page 8

BLACKBALL STRIKE.

. ' REMARKABLE LETTER. g'UW;'- / A TELEGRAM FROM MR. TREGEAR . HOW THE UNION BUSINESS IS 1 ( 1 CONDUCTED. ■ , [BT TELEGEAOT.—SPECIAL CORRESrONDBNT.] v; . Creymoutli, April 9. in// ' As'.showing .how: business' is conducted a ■X. • Blackball, the following. remarkablo lettei published.to-day, is of interest: — ■ After yesterday's'meeting of tho Black ball Miners' Union/I am forced to submi [■'my viows tjo the public, to show them th mannor in which the' proceedings in conncc [ftS. / tion with the,' striko are conducted. Th rji/y <■:; meeting held. yesterday was brought abou ; : in the following manner: —It appears tha . ; on v March 25, the president of the' .Union [/;../y' Mr. . Barnhill, received; the. following . tele '• / gram from ; Mr. Tregear, Secretary 0 - . Labour:— /: : y . MP.. TREGEAH'S TELEGRAM, ■vi" "-'Andrew TJarnhill, president, Blackball • -Miners' Union, ' i ■ . "'I have been engaged on several occasions with Mr. Hickey and Mr. M!Culi - . lough, in endeavouring to find ■ some -. , v solution of tho present difficulty. I ■ have come to the conclusion that there ,-■■■ ••••is no way.out of it, oxcept by the.Minis- ;/./: .' ' tor's influence being used with Mr. / •;. ■ Stead and> directors. ','Ministers, j. howr>;: :ever, will not movo. after, the,.manner, in . i : which a fortaer/approach was lmet,;,without having ;th.o' guarante'oi of tho; Union; A"k. y : :■ through . its' Executive; that oiy ar-., >,y . J;,' '- rangement made by them' would bo ad- ' hered to. The proposals formulated -in ' y-/v.,; my mind..aro as follow: — V-,, y-.y '1" ' Tho directors to grant' within, a ; yy ' fortnight thirty minutes' crib v timei.- . , N Restoration of the discharged mon . '• ' to their former position. '.. ■ yyy;:v:y •' "'The-payment, of'half-of the fine. . Y y ' Tho inen, on their part; to'guaran- ; iiy Vv'" : tco..- that,.; if theso concessions aro ;,v;r; ,- ' granted} thoy will return'.to; work at ', yy- ,;:ince.y ; y y - y" - ■ . f - ' ... " 'If'the men will ask tho Minister.to :,y;';,, intervene; with Mr.. Stead, this, matter ■"yy'r n'ftcd not be, made public •in any w;ay. , In'factj it would.bo'an entirely private arrangement, and one. that would .be exi.v :y. , pectcd' to boconfidential, •so far - as: tho ' ...''Press is concerned. 'In-regard .to jpay-. ' ment of half the,fine,', the Government . . . very easy- terms—namely, ' . « threo months, a pqrtio'n'.beingvpaid cach - '• months but the final payment to bo made y* .; • within'the three months. ' Personally, I brgo you to accept,' because''L not;only." f.v v"! feel; .that .you 'will', gain nearly all. tho ,y;-y benefits for - which tho strike.was 'iristi-,. - ■ "tuted, but ,als/>" because I havo privato . information' that . many of. tho directors . ' . . aro urging that tho mino.should be 6hi!t . down altibgether until -the comes I'. nearer. ■ "' EDWARD TREGEAR, '' '-.y y' ' " ' Secretary for Labour.' ■ , ATTITUDE OF THE EXECUTIVE. When this .telegram j was v received, none <f t-ho miners, cxcept, tho Executive ,and a v: y' :, -ew . of. those in, .the- know/ heard anything ;-y ; :u' v jf-itV ; These gentlemen—i.e., the Executive .' —did not consider the whole of the minors -- "capable., of dealing with'such, a matter,, and yy consequently: they; tho -wiseacres .of the Union, considered it in chambers, with the 0y..; ■ result ..that' Mr.' Tregear. was. c notified. thai a. : the miners-oould not entfertain; such a proi ' posal, and as much aa.told him to keep his , suggestions to r ,himself. ' Tilings ; went oil; a: . • before,' the•.minersquite in ignorance of---the Vopportunity of ;a , satisfactory settlement • '.y . .they had .missed. ■-' The Secretary, for Labour ■'[ believing that ho had tlie- decision of the majority, bf the miners, and' the. Executive y ..- . of. the Union, still ..reignod supreme. y Ii .' v-; will be noticed here' that-, it was on the 27ti . that, the Government decided to collect the ye'v ; fine—i.e., tho seeing fibw unreasonable wero, but during 'the .courso of a woek's vtiino somo of thej'minors hoard rumours conr y.'; ' ■ Verning tho telegram, and, -ait aj meeting helc ■ ■ on.April 3, some-of them asked to have ; : ;?'.all -the. Thej were told that there was,-'nothing to.-read y -. : v ;but: a'.good many-'had' their'; doubt/, and 1 v v " gcod.deal of discussion, en'siied, but; the Exe cu'tivo remained -firm, ,and-, refused tei rcac . ' the telegram above: .mentioned/'. After tin meeit-ing,' some; of-'the; miners e'ndeavonree . y.-' ; . to arrive at some means whereby they coulc / .. r*.- obtain a oejpy .-of, the telegram,' and eventu ■ ally, they hit upon the ielca of asking Mr . Tregear for a ,'co'py of the telegram sent t< . . , Mrl' Barnbill,.''and; with that object in view . / .sent a to'• Mr. Tregear, ' who .re y- plied .promptly as-follows.:—■ .i ''. .' -.Of course, I. canript say-.:that tho ! ';-. torms mentioned-could now.be.obtained.. .The-telegram. I; sent, was'accompanied by ■ . 0:30 from " Mr., Hickcy- and on'e from Mr. ' : Hogg (for .tlie. Socialist-Party), rccom- . / . • mending, that - tlie terms I .suggested should bs accepted. The telegram I' .1 , sent on March'2s was .as follows ' (an . exact copy , of telegram' already given . , ; above').' - A SPECIAL MEETING. " When this telegram was - receivec a requisition was signed by ten of tho miner: yasking for a-special meeting of the Union (This was on'Saturelay afternoon, but; thi meeting was not held till Tuesday.) At thi; meeting a request to read the-telegram'that : ' the,.miners had received from Mr. Tregea] . ' v.'as refused; but, after considerable discus ' sio'h, the chairman, consented to, lJaving thi telegram \ sent to Mr. Barnhill. read ■■■ When this telegram;had,been read the mem hers' commenced >to 'discuss the matter,-bu' wiiein it-was tried to make a motion re finding the motion , of continuing tho striki and to ask the. manager if the terms men ..<•* tioried in the telegram were stiil open, the; were 1 ruled out of order by Mr. Fox, thi chairman, and any suggestions tending to wards a settlement was received .with criei - of 'Out ; of Order' from the chairman. Any thing which suggested keeping on strike dn< allowing tho Executive ' full '• power wa .;. greeted with ' Hear, hear' from tho chair ' . man. Now, can janyono reading tho abovthat I 'the,Executivo of tho Union wisl ; o, settlement? ' .ADVICE REJECTED. " When the telegram from Mr. Tregea ras received there wore telegrams also re ceived from Mr. Hickcy .and Mr. Hogg' rec.om mending that the miners accept the term oireral, but instead of the Executive actin| oil t-ho advice of' these men, they ,simpl; ignore everyone, even'the men. they ropn '. , sent, and say, 'We won't go back to work, T'hey also informed Mr. Hickey that he wa sent to get financial support, not to arrang conferences, and likewise to Mr. Hogg. The considered their, own advice best. The 0111 thing I can sco is that they wore afraid tibfl '.: ; : the men would accept and go' back to wort ' then they would lose all their .notoriety, an

have to move on to some other place whero they are not known and try the same gamo there.

CRIB TIME. .''The majority of tho men are commonsense, men, and would, only havo been too willing to accept the,terms suggested by. Mr; Tregear, because th'cy recognise they havo broken the law, and-that it caiinot.be expected that they should get the. thirty minutes' crib timo beforo resuming .work, . and if .they were\ assured that the management would grant thirty minutes within a fortnight I have no hesitation in saying-they would liayo. returned to work immediately, especially; as Mr. Stead had promised to pay half the lino. Of course, Mr. Tregear does not say definitely that thirty minutes would havo been granted within the fortnight, but he did say that lie had been in communication with the'directors,' and : must havo received, somo notico from them that tliey would grant the concessions if tho Union would' ask- for them. / Whether thodirectors would grant these concessions now after being refused by- the Executivo of tho Union is, of course, unknown to me, but what was wanted by some of the' men was to ask the management if the men returned to work at once would, they ..fayourably consider the thirty minutes. If- wo got this promise from tho ipanagoment we could send a deputation, E ?X> days after wo started and say, ' Now - wehave resumed : work and shown ourselves to be reasonable'men, we think it. is as little as you can do to grant us . thirty minutes' crib time.' If this were done, lam of the. opinion' that we, would get thirty minutes,- not in a fortnight" but iii two days.- ,; ... - • WHY MOT A BALLOT? ' I am sorry; to .say, sir, that all theso* '•suggestions were ruled out of order by-our ciilturocl ••chairman'/. If the Executive are not afraid of the men returning to work, why do. they . not. allow-a ballot to be taken on tho matter suggested above? . This is'the proper way of ascertaining the feelings of ! tho men. ' .Now, this'is only'ono instance of tho splendid ruling of. the chairman ,of the meetings. Whon atjthe beginning of tho/trouble, Mr. • Mori, one', of the ablest men in the suggested that the men should recog-' riise the law and; act' with it at their back, j ho was : ruled out of order, and called upon to sit down; ' Mr. Mori continued throughout tho wholo of the", trouble to advocate these? principles,, and for so doing, he has been suspended from the Union altogether by our learned Executive." , ' : ' . -/ ADDRESS BY MR. 'HfOKEY. • Auckland, April 9. i In a public address last night, Mr:: P. H.. Hickey,-the blackball delegate, said the 'miners. ■of ; Blackball" were . not fighting ;against ; thqf Gomp'any,; so .much as for 'api'inciplo and their health.: Ho condemned tho action .of, a; certain • portion of : the Press in describing the Blackball miners as an 1 irresponsible lot •• of ,iCoalheavors,\ so well treated iby a. kind-and, sympathetic company that' they!.vlaugh«T and' finally kicked' over the graces. Mr. Hickey went on to refer to tho support tho miners had reoeived from the workers, : with' tho exception ■ of, a few tinsmiths' and; chcmical■ mamiro workers. : The Blackball men recognised that-they had made .mistakes. .' They . had not tho faculty, for .looking through a. stone %all-any •'better' developed : than anyone else. 'Had they -known tfiat•.affairs. wfiro going. to tako such /a turn, matters niight have been guided differently, though the mon would certainly not havoygonq-back to tho mine''unless ■ certain .coiicbs'liibns',/which, liad already' been ■ asked -'for, ! were' forthcoming. ; There , must' 1)o; no , such as had; been shown,-and- the ;men must have timo to swallow their food." The' speaker proceeded' to givjj., tho.i history..of the strike on the',same .lines; as. at', the recent meeting of the' Trades and Labour,"Council.' /The.. Arbitration Act came in for a full, measure of criticism. A motion was passed approving of tho aotion of the men. Both mover and seconder expressed an .emphatic'opinion that' the Arbitration Court'' and its attendant legislation was. unworkable.