Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1929. N.S.W. COAL MINES

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1929, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1929. N.S.W. COAL MINES

*J*IIE coining season of peace and goodwill to all men will not be held under auspicious circumstances, so far as the New South Wales coal-mining districts are concerned. The authorities will be satisfied, probably, if they can maintain peace, without bothering about the goodwill. The compromise advocated by the Federal Labour Ministry and the men’s own delegates has been rejected, the disruption ists getting busy immediately after the peace conference at Canberra, and thus persuading, or frightening, the miners who have

been workless for nine months, to go on strike. With the love of freedom that is the boast of all trades unions, threats are being made of mob-la'W, if the N.S. Wales Government proceeds with its proposal to work the Rothbury and other mines. This challenge to authority is being accepted, and unless a

change takes place in the mutual attitudes, things may be stirring in the coalfields area, soon.

Probably, those advocating a strike are bluffing, and when they see the State Government is in earnest, they will retreat leaving their dupes to make the best of the circumstances. A wage reduction is, of course, unwelcome, but the necessity for it in this instance has been endorsed by the Federal Labour Ministry, which cannot be . accused of bias in the employers’ favour. The new struggle is more between constitutional Labour and the extremists, than between the miners and the mine-owners, and this aspect should be considered by those in the Dominion, sympathising with the strikers. It has been proved by impartial enquiry that the N.S.W. coal-industry must reduce costs, if competition is to be met, and the miners are asked to share in the enforced economies. This development in the coal industry is being utilised by the extremists for all it is worth. They claim that the lower wages for miners must be followed by wagereductions in all other industries. They give no evidence of such likelihood, and ignore the fact that conditions in other avenues of employment are different. Already, .the miners have lost two millions in wages, and although Government doles and levies from employed miners have kept them and their families from starvation, much distress must have been caused, and it will be long before the miners can recover from the stoppage effects. ,

It is a pitiful story from the beginning, but the end is probably in . sight. The general strike proposal has aroused no enthusiasm, and if, as seems probable, the State Government finds little difficulty in securing all the labour required to wOrk Rothbury and other mines, there will be a rush to get fyaek to work. The timber workers’ strike ingloriously failed, despite “basher gangs” and other cowardly methods, and it is not to be expected that any colliery ‘basher gangs” will succeed in the main object of intimidation.