WORLD OF LABOR.

Mataura Ensign, 24 April 1913, Page 2

WORLD OF LABOR.

♦- NEW SOUTH WALES COLLIERS. ANOTHER CONFERENCE. »1 BLIOTEIC TELKGaAFH. —OOPyEIQHI PEE UNITED PEESS ASSOCIATION- - . SYDNEY, April 23. The first distribution of strike pay to the Southern miners was 8s each and 2s for each child, which is at the rate of Is 6d a week during tho currency of the strike. The smallness of the pay is attributed to the fact that many union;; have not yet responded to the appeal for funds. A deputation representing the Southern and Northern coalminers and the Sydney and Nowcastlo Coal Lumpers' Unions and Seamen's Union interviewed Rons. J. McGowen (Premier) and A. C. Oarmichael (Minister for Labor) in connection with the colliery trouble. It is understood that important proposals were submitted. Mr McGowen announced that it had been agreed not to divulge the proceedings. FIREMEN STRIKE. I SYDNEY, April 23. ! The withdrawal of the steamer ssealandia from the Vancouver service and placing her on the inter-State running led to a reduction of the firemen by | three. Tho other firemen objected, and struck. The Zealandia is held up. A HUNTLY TROUBLE. FEB UNITED PREBB ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, April 23. Speaking of the trouble which has arisen between the Waikato Coalminers' Union and the directors of the Taupiri Coal Mines Co., Huntly, Mr E. W. Alison, chairman of directors, said to-day that he did not anticipate that the present agitation would come to anything very serious. The position was that certain unionists wished to influence the 'directors to reinstate the members of , the executive who were dismissed dur- , ing the recent trouble and other miners whose services had been dispensed with i jowingto the slackening off of work in i j the mines. For about four months each! i summer there was a considerable falling ' j off in the output. The union recently 1 wrote to the directors asking for a conference at which the question of reinstating those men whose services had been dispensed with could be thorough,ly gone into. A reply to this request was sent, in the course of which the direcetors stated : "The directors are, as your union must be aware, always willing to meet and confer with the employees, but in regard to this particular matter the directors think it right to stato quite plainly that they have no intention of reinstating any of the men who were dismissed. No man has been ; dispensed with without very careful deliberation, and the directors can see no reason for reconsideration of their ac- . tion. ' The letter concluded with the information that the directors could not see that the conference asked for could | serve any useful purpose. At a meeting at Huntly on Monday a resolution was proposed, "That tho union gives the directors of the Taupiri Coal Mines Co. 14 days' notice that if all the men are not reinstated within that time they will down tools." An amendment to the motion, holding the matter over for consideration at a special general meeting, was eventually carried.