BROKEN HILL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 317, 2 October 1908, Page 7

BROKEN HILL.

DECREASE IN EMPLOYEES IN MINES. (BY TELEGKAPH—MESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) , Sydney, October 1. The employees at tho Barrier mines number 6752, a decrease of 3288 since Soptember of last year. LABOUR TROUBLE. With the slump in prices of metals, bad times have fallen on Broken Hill, and not only is there less labour, but the mine-owners say they must pay it less. Tho present wage's agreement for January, 1908, expires at the ond of this year, and the men propose, as provided for in the agreement, to ask the managers to meet thorn in conference, probably m October. The feeling of tho men i; strongly against any reduction in wages. Mr. W. Nulty, president of tho Barrier Trades Union Conference, which fixed up tho current agreement with the mites, expresses surprise at tho statement of Mr. Darling, ohoirman of the Proprietary Board, that the wages will havo to come down, and questions whether Mr. Darling really meant what he was reported to havo said. Tho threat of reduction was a cruel one, foi too many were reduced enough now. Then the standard of wages was not as good as it should be,* seeing the enormous wealth they produced. It seemed to them that the dividends must be maintained at all costs. During the boom time, added Mr. Nulty, when enormous dividends were made, tho mineowners did not raise wages, but now the metal market was normal, according to Mr. Darling, wages must come down. It' was certain that any reduction proposal would be strongly resisted, and any effort to put the reduction into operation would probably result in an industrial conflagration.