BROKEN HILL'S RECORD

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 22, 26 July 1920, Page 2

BROKEN HILL'S RECORD

STRIKE

END BELIEVED TO BE NEAR.

(MOM Otto OWN* CO'.EKSPOHDENI.)

• SYDNEY, 14th July. It is believed that the end of the Broken Eili strike is ,in sight. A oompulsory conference of the miners and the mine-owners' representatives, held in Sydney to-day, decided to agree to the appointment of a tribunal,' and to abide by the decision of thar tribunal. It is about time. The strike has gone on since May, 1919, and must be about a record in duration. It started by the miners making demands for big wages and short hours; it was.complicated by a nght among the various unions concerned, and by further demands by the unions; ana to-day probably not even the miners .themselves know exactly what is m dispute. The tribunal, however, is to consider wage's and working hours generally. Of course, the Broken Hill mining iiidustry a-nd the subsidiary industries at Port Pirie, Cockle Creek, Waratah, and other centres ar« in a sta£e of utter stagnation. Scarcely a wheel has turned m any of these great wealth-producing places for a year. Broken HilL on the map, is a city of 40,000 people, a place which normally is more attractive than one would suppose from its situation, and a most important industrial centre. To-day, its condition can be better imagined than described. It is a place of idleness. Thousands of men have been loafing about there for month upon month, living on the contributions which their fellows in other parts of the Commonwealth send them Tegularly., Broken Hill business hon£«6 are reported to be strained to their utmost financially, and are at the end of their resoir^s. Over £1,500,000 has .been lost by the workers there since May, 191&. Recovery in any event must be slow.

'^ The unionists who have been paying tie levies whereon'the Broken Hill men carried on are themselves threatening to cease paying. Hence the drift towards a settlement. .