THE COAL MINES

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3177, 2 October 1942, Page 5

THE COAL MINES

(To the Editor.) Sir, —I always get a lot of fun at a horse sale listening to farmers selling their souls as well as their gibbing nags; but 'Friday’s sale was spoilt through so many farmers wanting to shoot the coalstrikers without trial. : • mind went back to another direct actionist, Jesus Ben Joseph, who travelled about Palestine preaching the betterment of man. He discovered a rotten financial system stood in his way, so he built himself a whip and flogged the money changers out of the temple. This direct action upset the employing class and they swore his life away. Now this sham

trial happened on a feast day and the crowd were entitled to claim one prisoner, so the murderer Barabbas was set at liberty and Jesus was crucified, notwithstanding Governor Pilate having told the crowd that he had committed no wrong. I have worked for the New Zealand Mines Trust and I can assure the readers I know what I am talking about. At one time £lOOO invested in Pukemiro gave the shareholder a dividend equal to the wages of three miners.

Those days are gone for ever and the owners know it. I believe that they have gone in for a system of pinpricking so that the Government would take over the mines and so give them back the capital invested, which under present-day conditions is not paying dividends. An enquiry will be interesting,— l am, etc., A.EJH. Paeroa, 30:9:42'.