THE COAL STRIKE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15899, 10 April 1912, Page 9

THE COAL STRIKE.

RESUMPTION BALLOT. EFFECT OF THE MINIMUM WAGE. LOSSES BY THE TRIKE. United Proas Association—By Electrio Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, April 8. An analysis of Saturday’s voting shows that Durham, Northumberland, Derby, Notts, Leicestershire and Cumberland reversed tlieir ballot decision and joined South Wales and the Midlands in favour of resumption. Probably Scotland did likewise, and tho minority in favour of continuing the strike thus consists of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire. Those delegates not bound by instruction interpreted the men’s general desire to be to resume, which is .not attributable to the exhaustion of funds, inasmuch as Durham and Derbyshire have ample resources. . The Tyneside coal merchants predict a permanent rise of Is 6d to 2s per ton in the price of household coal to cover the increased cost of production owing to tho minimum wage. The collieries announce that regular supplies will be available in three days. It is calculated that the miners lost £6,000,000 in wages and £2,000,000 in trade funds and personal savings. Other workers lost £8,000,000. It is estimated that the loss of coal production was £10,000,000, the loss in production by other industries also £10,000,000, and the total loss to tho community £50,000.000.

George Barker, a member of the Miners’ Federation executive, hints at the possibility of a strike by all classes of workers if the district boards fix the minimum below the schedule. Tlie miners at Cannock Chaso and the whole of Scotland except Fifeshire have resumed. THE TRANSPORT WORKERS. Mr Hartshorn, speaking at Maesteg, said the transport workers would strike ia the early part of the summer. RESUMPTION OF WORK. ANOTHER HUGE STRIKE THREATENED. (Received April 9, 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, April 9. One hundred and eighty thousand miners are working. The majority of the others will resume to-day, though there is much ill-feeling in the North of England at the resumption. Durham and South Wales are delayed by the attitude of the enginemen. The Durham enginemen are earning 5s 4d a shift, and demand an increaso of 8d and an eight hours’ day. Tho masters are offering an increaso of 4d. Mr Hartshorn, speaking at Maesteg, said that preparations were being made for a Labour movement of unprecedented magnitude. Tho threatened pressure upon tho Government to introduce legislation preventing the workers holding up the country necessitated union between tho transport workers, railway men and miners. Ho believed that two millions would be striking within a few months for a national eight hours and a national minimum wage. NEW SOUTH WALES HELP. SYDNEY, April 9. The Lord Mayor has sent a second £IOOO to assist the starving people in England. RELIEF FUNDS. [Pvr Press Association.] HASTINGS, April 9. Tho contributions by residents of Hastings, for the relief of starving British children now totals £lB5 10s. This amount includes Mr G. P. Donnelly’s gift of £IOO and church collections.

THE BEGINNING OF THE STRIKE. ATTITUDE OF THE PUBLIC. [From Our Correspondent.] LONDON, March 1. The country has shown exemplary patience and discipline. But there wall be no calmness after Tuesday if there is no settlement in sight.— “ Observer.” The nation . . . has behaved with exemplary calmness and patience in the face of the greatest catastrophe that has threatened the country since the Spanish Armada. —“Times.” ; These'things were written before it was a matter of certainty that there i would be any coal strike worth the name, and whilst the man-m-the-street was declaring his profound conviction that something would happen to prei vent the disaster we have all been discussing for the past ten weeks, or more. The Tuesday spoken of has come and gone and the nation is exhibiting the same exemplary calmness, patience and discipline as heretofore. In one or two newspaper offices it is true there seems to be a tendency to “rave and ramp,” but on the whole even the Press is taking things very quietly, and bidding the nation to do likewise. Really there seems nothing else to do, and the compliments of the “Times” and the “Observer” have fallen very flat. What did the writers expect us to do. Rush about the streets howling like lunatics: arm ourselves and go forth and shoot the strikers at random, burn London, or what? Hero we are to-day apparently in the thick of the most disastrous industrial upheaval that has ever overtaken the nation, yet everybody, barring the miner is going about his business as if such a thing as a National Coal Strike was the idea of a person escaped from Bedlam. Everybody knows that a million coal miners are “out”; everybody knows what their remaining out for even a couple or three weeks may mean, but everybodv vou speak to refuses utterly to" believe" that the crisis is such a terribly serious matter as the newspapers have declared it to be. To-day I have asked a score of business men what their opinion of the outlook is, and with one accord they have declared that in their opinion a settlement will bo arrived at within the next four or five days. So may it be. Meanwhile the Government is doing its best to bring about a speedy settlement. Whether Mr Asquith and his colleagues of the Ministry should have intervened in the dispute before they did is a matter of opinion, but there can be no question abqut tile effectiveness of their intervention as far as it has gone. The coal-owners definitely refused to consider the question of a minimum wage, but as a result of negotiations with both parties the Government succeeded in inducing a large proportion (60 per cent at least reckoned by output) of the owners to accept a" compromise between the demands of the I mert and their own position. For tho rest, if words mean anything, Mr Asquith is determined to bring the recalcitrant owners into lino by means of legislation. To-day there are over a million miners “out,” but, though the railway •companies have placarded their premises

with notices to the effect that they will, failing a settlement, curtail their services after Sunday,, and though the newspapers are full of evil tidings in the shape of notices given by manufacturers and others to their workpeople announcing their intention to close down at given dates if the.strike lasts, the public continue to show the “ exemplary calmness,” patience and discipline so much admired by the “Times ” and the “ Observer.”