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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 188, 28 August 1888, Page 2

A general strike amongst the Hunter River miners, would throw between five and six thousand people out of work. The strike money required for ther support would, it is calculated, amount to about £20.000 a month, An expenditure like that could not long be continued by the strongest unions or combination of unions. When the mopey began tq run short, the wives anfl children of the miners would begin to feel the pinch. The pressure might be staved off for a time by the credit which the storekeepers of the district, dependent as they are upon the support of the miners, would be compelled to give. But there would be a limit to this. The storekeepers themselves might require credit if they misted their accustomed cash returns, and those to whom they would have to appeal would probably look some distance ahead! But what would they see in the future? A general strike qn the Hunter Biver would certainly involve immense injury to the trade at Newcastle. The Hunter river mines can* not command a monopoly of the coal trade of the Southern hemisphere. If they were closed their customers would seek supplies elsewhere, and the diversion of trade would tq a cartain extent be permanent. There is plenty ot coal to be had elsewhere, and if Newcastle drops out of the trade for a month, or two months, or three, the effect will be to strengthen to an indefinite extent the position of competitors. Every thousand pqundq paid away to the strikers in Newcastle will be practically a subsidy to coalowners elsewhere, and then when the ■trike terminatet the coal trade at New. castle will have to be resumed under different conditions. If five thousand miners voluntarily go ont of work now, the diminished trade will not provide employment for five thousand miners when the strike terminates ; and, besides that, the coal-owners, having lost heavily by the itrike, and having also to Struggle for the recovery of lost ground in the teeth of increased competition, will not be ta a position to conclude better terms to the men, even if they are willing to do so. They may be forced, indeed, to seek a reducion ot tbiir outlay.—Syduey Mail. t