THE COLLIERS’ STRIKE.

Evening Star, Issue 7749, 22 October 1888, Page 3

THE COLLIERS’ STRIKE.

A gentleman who recently paid a visit to Christchurch from Newcastle has given the * Lyttelton Times’ some information respecting the present strike and its causes. “ You are,” said our informant, “no doubt tolerably well aware of the cause of the strike. In short, it was that the men, who were getting good wages, thought that they ought to get more. The companies were making so much money that the miners thought they ought to make more too. Yet ordinarily good miners were then getting L 4 a week, and first-rate experienced men as much as L 6 a week. No one worked more than eight hours a day, the average time being from six to seven hours. The minimum rate of pay for hewing was 4s 2d per ton, besides which the men were paid extra for the bands of dirt which they met with in the seams. The statements made in the letter from the secretary of the miners to the New Zealand Knights of Labor are quite incorrect. He says that the masters have been making enormous demands. They have made no demands at all; the men have made all the demands. Again he speaks of the masters’ refusal of arbitration. They have never refused to arbitrate, but have endeavored to patch up the breach in every possible way. Ido not think that the strikers can hold out much longer, not more than a month or so. It takes, I reckon, about L 5,000 a week to keep the men and their families, and their funds cannot long stand such a drain, even though they may receive help from other colonies. Any attempt to run the mines with workmen, or to employ foreigners, will only make matters worse. It would be difficult to get them in sufficient numbers, and their presence would always lead to rioting, especially as the miners began to get savage from feeling the pinch of privation, a thing they are not accustomed to. I don’t go so far as to say they would offer armed resistance to the law, though most of them have arms—-fowling-pieces, at all events. There are hotblooded young men among them who would be ready for fighting, but, on the other hand, many of them arc steady, shrewd men. They, as well as other people, must see that the sooner the strike is over the better for all parties. I reckon that it will take five years to undo the mischief which it has done to Newcastle already.”