Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1892. THE DURHAM COAL STRIKE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 9266, 28 April 1892, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald. THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 1892. THE DURHAM COAL STRIKE.

Our cable messages have of late contained many rcferou?ea to tho strike of Durham minors, aud to . the consequent laying up of steamers aud closing of faotoriee, It will ha remembered that at one timo it was feared that tho strike would be universal among tbe miners, aud something like a panic ensued, coaj suddenly jumping to famine prices. That is not to be wondered at, for it would be difficult to overstate tbe disasters which would fall on England if her coal supplies were suddenly cut off. No other nation is so dependent on coal for her prosperity, Tho annual production Is over 190,000,000 tons, or about five tona per bead of the population, including women and children. Tbe export last year was about U6,000,000 tons, so that over 100,000 tons are required for homo use. That a general strike was arrested was, therefore, a mattor lor national tlmnksgiviog. Home papers to hand by tho San Francisco mail tell us tho cause of the Durham strike and why it did not extend. The men at nearly all tho collieries in England bus-

pended work for a short time, to reduce the Btooka of coal, and they are now working, we believe, only five days a week, to keep down the output. In Wales and Scotland work was not suspended. There are in Great Britain 405,890 miners associated with the Miuers' Federation, and those of Durham now on strike, number 100,000 of that number. Why, Iti may be asked, did some miners keep at work, others stop work temporarily, and the Durham men go on strike? Tbe answer H instructive. The strike of the Dorlnm men is a curious commentary on the professed desire of some labor agitators for a system of profit-sharing. It is, of course, on essential condition of profit-sharing that there must be profits, That the men in prosperous years should get a share in tho profits mnde is quite fair, always provided that in non-prosperons periods they take their share of tbe losses, Well, prior to 1879, when the last great strike of miners occurred, there had been numerous strikes, more or less extensive, within a short period. To obviate those disasters to both masters and men a slidiDg-scale was adopted. That ia to say, a minimum wage was fixed upon, subject to definite increases according to tbe pries of coal, The miners coald not make less than tbe fixed wages, but they could make more if coal exceeded a stated price, and the higher tho price roso the greater was the woge paid for hewing it. This arrangement has worked very satisfactorily on certain fields, and that accounts for the bulk of the miners continuing at work or only suspending operations for a short time to limit tbe output so as to raise the price of coal and so increase wages. The alidiog scale waa in force in the Durham 1 mines until 18S9, when it was terminated by the men— for what reason we do not know. According to the official statement put forward by the Durham Miners' ' Association, tho price oi coal went upward, and tbe men got successive advances in wages amounting to an aggregate of 30 per cent by January last year, when the 1 last 5 per cent waa conceded, and tbe working hours were shortened, so increasing the cost of mining coal. There was a downward movement in prices, starting from December, 1890, and In April last tho mine owners approached t the Miners' Union with a proposal for a reduction of wages, which was not conceded. In September, according to the old slidia^-scalo rule, the miners would . have had to euataiu 11J per cent reduc" tion. Prices continued to go further down, and tbe miners refused puiat-blnnk to suffer any further reduction whatever. The coal owners offered to leave it to & arbitration, and this also tbe men deft dined. Under tbe circumstances the I owners had no alternative but to give '< notice of a reduction or the closing of tbe y mines. The raeu would not give way, |* and went out ou strike. They are still y out, and while they have undoubtedly inflicted great loss on the mine ownerssome of tbe mines are flooded, and will r ! never be worked again— they bavf a suffered far more themselves, and have \ enforoed idleness ou tens of thousands ol 1 workeis io trades dependout on coal. Before the mail left tbe effects of tbi etriko had begun to be severely felt. Th( London and North Western Rallwaj Company had decided to suspend ' tbeii forges and rail mills at Crewe. Aboui )l 250 men would in consequence be throw! - out of work. The whole of tho mci employed in the traffic department of tbi Fatness Railway Company, including , diivet?, firemen, guards, and shunters ' had received a week's notice, as the trail service might to same oxtent have to bi p curtailed. A similar notice had beei niveu on tbe Wrexharo, Mold, am Connalis-qusy Railway. All along tbi north-eastern coasts workmen were beini discharged by hundreds owing to tb stoppage of coal supply. In tbe Hartle pools, where 25,000 tons of conl wer shipped oaoh week, the export trade hai b'co completely suspended, and diod; M men who were employed about the dock _ were out of work. Tbe minoral trafiio oi thu railway had ceased, and io all siding tliure waa a beggarly array of empty coa waggons. Tho crisis had resulted ii several large ironworks being closed ii tho neighborhood of Wolverhampton L Tbe Cleveland ironworks, the Mnnmoo ironworks, the Wolverhampton Brick am Tile Company, and Messrs Lysagbs Limited, who employ 1500 hands, had al temporarily stopped working. In Leed and district nearly all the large mills steel and iron works, and other industries were eitber reducing their workmen o suspending work altogether. Since then as we know by our cable messages, man} other important Industrie/! dependent oi coal supplies from the Durham fields have snspended operations. One reaultof the strike has been to call B prominent attention to the enormom royalties demanded by tbe owners of the coalfields, lv but few instances dc tbe owners work the mines. They lot them on payment of so much pei ton mined, according to quality, size ol Beams, and so on. The mines aro generally worked by companies, and it is ' undoubted that, but for tbe heavy royalties they have to pay, they could give better wages and still make good profits. B "An Ironmaster" thus wrote to the Daily Neivs, before it) was known that the strike would be confined to Durham :— " In consequence of the great strike of colliers in Durham, I am just anrauging to blow out my furnaces and pay off ray men. My fuel supplies are getting lowi and iv consequence I cannot keep my furnaces iv blast. It is not yet possible to realise what a general strike of colliers 6 would mean to this little England of ours, but it looks now as if very soon we shall be brought face to face with the position. Although I Bufier very much from [ this Btrike Ido not see that I can comr plain very much at the action of these 1 Durham colliers to protect- themselves. . Why should tbesa colliers be asked for a redaction ia wages before an attempt has been made to get a reduction of tbe enormous royalty rents paid to landlordism for the right to get coal ? Some of your readers will understand what a tax upon industry are these heavy royal ty rents when I tell them how it touches me and my men. My furuaca produces 50,000 tona of pig irou per annum. The royalty rent paid to landlordism for irou oru, coal, and limestone to produce 80,000 tons of pig iron is 6a per too, or £15,000 pur annum to landlordism for this furnace in one j ear. The wages to all tho men employed at the furnace is 3* pei ton, or £7500 per annum. The men work bard for their money, and deservo every penny they get, but what dses tho landlord or mineral lord do for hU inouey ? The collier, at tho risk of Hfo aud limb, goes forth iuto tho bowels of the earth to got tho coal. Then why call upon the colliers for a paltry 5 per cont reduction iv wages and stop all trade aud ludustry to secure it? I could understand a great strike against mineral lords for a reduction of the royalty rents." Tkis should be a lesson to nil young countries uot to sell mineral rights with the surfneo of tbe soil. Tliero should always be preserved tho right of the Stato to resume any property where valuable miuerals aro proved to exiat below tho surface on payment of compensation for surface value and any damage from severance. In England those rights were relinquished centuries ago — sometimes to tho favorites or mistresses of kings— and if tbe original owners were still alive there- would be no moral injustice in resuming them. But, except in very few instances, the present owners bought them at their full value, of which the mineral rights formed tbe chief item, and resumption now would bo just as much confiscation as the robbery of landowners advocated under tbe euphemism oi land naturalisation. The position is a most difficult one, but ie is certainly bard on both miners and companies working tho mines that such cuormoua royalties should havo to be paid,

The nnnnal meeting of the" Rugby „■ [Jnion will be held in the Criterion Hotel f t ;onight at 8 o'clock, when the new lelegutes are requested to be present for [be puipoßo of electing office-bearers. f c Members of the Hastings Perraonent ,jjj Building Society are reminded that the y> nnnaal meeting will bo held to-night at E 8 o'clock, when the report and statement P of accounts for the past year will be presented. At the Resident Magistrate's Court \ yesterday, before Mr Turnbull, R.M., an t old man named James Chase was charged t with vagrancy. Oa his promising to go [ back to the Napier refuge, and stay < there, he was dismissed with a caution. I Owing to the downpour of rain that commenced yesterday, the tea-meetini; I and entertainment In connection with St. , AußUstiae's Church, arranged for last night, had to be postponed. The tea meeting will take place this evening, but the concert will not be given until the week after next. Mr A. Mercer, who has been returned to tbe London County Council as member for St. George's-in-the-East, is secretary of tho Seamon and Firemen b Union, and is brother-in-law to Mr.R. PofleU, the local manager of (he tJnion Steamship Company. We mentioned on a former occasion that he was at one time employed at Messrs Mnrray, Roberts, and Co., at the Spit. He polled at the election 1270 votes, the defeated oandldate only polling 642. We are requested by the authorities of tbe hospital named to insert the iollowing :— A meeting was held in London on Tuesday, March Ist, when it was decided to raise a fund in memory of the late Sir Morell Mackenzie, M.D., tbe proceeds of which should be devoted to the enlargement of tbe Tbroat Hospital, of which la'titution he waa the founder and in Wiioh up to the time of bia death he took tie greatest interest. His friends In all parts of tbe world who may wish to join tbe committee now being formed in connection with the movement should communicate with the secretary Throat Hospital, Golden-square, London, W. There does not seem ninoh room to wonder why Wellington suffers from a typhoid " boom," judging by the following from one of the local papers :— " No finer or more impressive collection of stinks can be found anywhere than is presented daily without charge to the nose holding pedestrian who bos to walk np Plimmers Steps. How far those rich and soul-searching odours may be accountable for a good deal of sickness we are unable to say, but we do say that if those truly awful smells do not multe people ill, they ought to do so. Yet this is one of the most used ' thoroughfares in town, formiDg as it does ■ the connection between the heirt of the ■ oity and one oi its chief residential I localities." Our Waipawa correspondent writing last evening says:— A very heavy cold r rnin set in this morning and has continued : all day and shows no signs of abatement. , It will be very rough on the lambs; a , persoD counted eight lying dead alongside the fence in one paddock as he rode into town tbis forenoon.— Tbe secretary of the ! county hospital reports tor tho past week 3 21 male and two female patients; five 3 males receivt d during the week, and three males discharged. Deaths nil.— Mr G. YY. j Williamson Has spent all his leisure time for some weeks, including his school holif days, in preparing some large charts, - containing diagrams illustrative of geoI metrical forms, with the formn'a and B description of each printed and appended and the wholo varnished, and mounted 6 on rollers. From a cursory glance on the '• night of the meeting, when they were on view to the householders, I can testify to c their excellence and adaptability for c teaching this useful scienoe of geometry, y Berry, the English executioner, haa . resigned. He had a very high opinion oi . the dignity of bis office, and when an order was issued recently authorising the D medical officers of prisons to decide on n the length of drop that should be given, c Berry felt that this encroachment on his 0 domaiu must be firmly met, and imnje 8 diately wrote to the Home Secretary tc ' (in his own words) " withdraw his name n from being any longer executioner tc c Kngland." Eugland Is at tbis moment n without a hangman, and if Berry could j have bis way, she would remain so foi ever. He is strongly opposed to capital punishment, and is lecturing against it on R a tour through Great Britain. We should >c tbink io this connection tbe old proverb 3. referring to alteration in tbe Devil's morals ■ c when he fell sick would at once occur 1 to tbe minds of bis audience. He is also engaged ou the completion of a work to y be entitled " People I have Hanged." :s Patriotic to the last, he is understood to n have refused a temptiog offer from a , 8 lecture bureau to lociuro through tho '. United States. Our Danovirke correspondent Writes as II follows under yesterday's date:— You v have published a telegraphic summary of i, the Court business here, but one aspect of )r it will bear amplification. George Swan, „ who was charged with stealing a coat, admitted to the Court that he bnrned the '• garment in question after it was seen in H his possession by the prosecutor. The Is Bench dismissed him on the ground that although he burned the coat it was not ' proved that he stole it.— Rather a curious '• transaction in the way of borae-dealing lr lias come to my ears. A asked Bto sell i, Mm a horse. B said he had not a horse y to sell, bnt introduced him to C, who had. n C and A went to a paddock, and C, pointing ont a nice little filly, said " That 6 is the horse I can sell you." After some bartering a sale was effected, and It was I arranged that A should take the horse s out of the paddock next morning. When „ he next went to the paddock the only horse iv it was dead, and judging by the "scent" had been dead a week. C is t now trying to convince A that he bonght r the horse now dead, and Ais wondering f what Is the best) method for teaching C where the laugh comes in.