THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 513, 26 March 1908, Page 3

THE BLACKBALL STRIKE.

i NO NEW DEVELOPMENTS. PREFER PRISON TO PAY. WHAT THE MINERS WON'T DO. PREMIER ON IMPRISONMENT. _j ITEK PKESS ASSOCIATION.] ;" Greymouth, March 25. i There are no new developments in . connection with strike matters at Blackball. Tho statement that negoi tiations aro proceeding for settlement ' seem to bave.no foundation as far as ' the local management is concerned. ! The manager, on being interviewed, states tliat 'He has had no conference with the Union for weeks ,ajid can only account for the statement by suggesting that <tho directors in Ohristchuroh might be moving in that i direction. I There has been no further meeting of the Union <and the matters remain unchanged. : Dunedin, March 25. Mr W. K. Pritohard, ono of the delegates appointed by the Blackball Union to deliver addresses in various parts of the dominion on the Blackball strike and what led up to it, arrived in Dunedin this evening. When interviewed ho said that tho union would certainly bo unanimous in sticking out for what it had demanded. : The workers were determined not to ! go back to work until they w_ere conj ceded half an hour for crib. He was ailso positive the men would go to gaol in preference to paying the -fine. Subscriptions received to date as a result of addresses .amount to just on £200. Pritchard pays his own expen- | He made a statement that, from private information he was possessed of and which ho was not in a position to divulge, ho would not be surprised ; if ho received a wire at any time that the strike was settled. Auckland, March 25. In the course of a speech at One- ! hunga to-night (in reply to Mr Massey's Hamilton speech) Sir Joseph Ward referred to Arbitration. He I said he would not at that juncture refer to the Blackball (strike, except to say lie deeply regretted it had occurred, and no man was a well-wisher <>1 the miners who advised them to take tho course they had taken. He was opposed to imprisonment and recogn ised that an amendment in the law . in this direction was necessary. Parliament must consider a dchemo to rej move anything like a dead level from the Court awards, so that an individual working harder or more scientii fioally than las fellows should receive ! the benefit of liis labours. — ■