THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9140, 23 August 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, AUGUST 23, 1888.

It may be hoped that the crisis that seems imminent in the industries and commerce of the colonies, owing to the menacing attitude assumed by labour and capital. towards one another, will result in some kind of arrangement being fixed upon to prevent the recurrence at any subsequent time of such a misfortune. For a misfortune it is to all concerned, that such an uncertainty exists that no one can tell whether a few days may not bring about the worst and most disastrous commercial disturbance to which these colonies have ever been subjected. Even yet there seems a probability that calm and prudent counsels will triumph ; and as sentiment is playing no inconsiderable part in the continuance of strained relations, surely the magnitude of the interests involved ought to prevail. It is awkward that at one and the same time two strikes, both of a very extensive kind, should have been impending. With the conflict between the Seamen's Union and the Shipowners' Association we in New Zealand are more immediately concerned ; but as this is largely dependent on the position that may be taken by the disputants in the coal - mining business, we cannot be indifferent to what is proceeding at Newcastle in New South Wales. There the coal-miners, to the number of between six and seven thousand men, have given a fortnight's notice of their intention of stopping work, that notice expiring on Monday next; and in the event of the strike taking place, it is regarded as a foregone conclusion that the Seamen's Union will make common cause. It would be taking a selfish view of the position to say that the stoppage of the coal mines in New South Wales would have the effect of stimulating the output in New Zealand, and of giving an introduction to New Zealand coal in many quarters where its character is but partially known. But the advantages to the colony in general would be more than counterbalanced by the embarrassment which would necessarily be caused by the laying up of a large number of the Union Steamship Company's boats, for a time at least, which would probably result from a strike of the Seamen's Union. On every ground, therefore, the public will watch with deep interest the development of the trouble which is expected to culminate on Monday next, on tho expiry of the notice of the Newoastle miners; and tho hope

will be earnestly cherished that before j that critical moment arrives the con- j ciliatory efforts that are being put forth will lead to the discovery of some modus vivendi between the coalpit j proprietors and the miners. Unhappily the question at issue in this particular case is a complicated one, and one not readily understood in all its bearings by outsiders. Briefly put, the question is as to the rates of payment to be made to the miners for hewing coal, complicated by the occurrence of faults in the coal measures. As these must occur at irregular intervals, and of irregular magnitude, we may comprehend the difficulty of establishing a uniform standard of payment. The men claim that they should receive extra payment for hewing where such faults exist, and as there is no exact definition of what constitutes a faulty seam, the liability to difference of opinion between employers and employes must be always present.

But complicated as the points at issue are, so that those outside of the coal mining industry are not able to arrive at a distinct conclusion as to which are right or wrong, they have been further complicated by impatience on the part of the men, and offended self-respect on the part of the proprietors ; for while negotiations were pending and proposals were under consideration to be determined within a specific period, the men became urgent for an immediate decision, and thereupon gave notice of striking work in a fortnight. The proprietors resenting this have refused to negotiate in the presence of such a threat ; and it is in these unfortunate circumstances that affairs are drifting. As stated by cable message in our yesterday's issue, the people of Newcastle, who necessarily are deeply interested in the solution of the difficulty, and the averting of such a catastrophe as the total stoppage of ■ the only industry on which the place is dependent, are using their best offices to bring about a reconciliation, and when we consider the interests at stake both in tiie case of the proprietors and of the miners, it is not reasonable to expect that merely standing on points of sentimental right will be allowed to prevent the resumption of negotiations. In the case of the employes, the throwing out of work and wages of the entire adult working population of the district is too serious a thing to be lightly braved, especially with the probability, amount ing almost to a certainty, that the struggle, if once undertaken, will be a protracted one ; while the mine-owners cannot fail to see that the stimulus which the coal famine would impart to the development of coalfields in the other colonies, and especially in New Zealand, would introduce a new and dangerous competition into a market of which they have hitherto had a practical monopoly. As the struggle, therefore, is not merely between the mineowners and miners at Newcastle, but would involve a subsequent struggle with the world without, from : which both would ultimately suffer, both in the profits on coals, and in the very high rates of wages which the present monopoly permits, it is probable that both parties will carefully weigh the contingencies before entering on the struggle. It so happens that coals and Newcastle are both now a necessity to Australia; but there are other means of steamproduction and of lighting cities, which if stimulated just now, might take a position from which it might not be easy to dislodge them ; and there are other places besides Newcastle that— if there was the expenditure of public I and private money on them which has I been made on that port and district— would render the colonies absolutely independent of those great coal fields. Unless complicated by this unhappy disturbance among the coal-miners, the dispute between the Seamen's, or rather the Maritime Union, and the Steamship Owners' Association isnot likely to eventuate in any disaster. The matter in dispute there is more clearly denned and much more easily understood. In the case of the Newcastle trouble, public opinion is held in suspense ; but in respect of the point at issue between the seamen and the shipowners, there can be no hesitation among reasoning and reasonable men, as to where the equities are. The Association of Shipowners have as much a right to sustain and subsidise and help in every way one of their members, as the Maritime Union have to subsidise and back one of theirs ; and the seamen have alienated public feeling by setting up such a preposterous claim as that the Steam Shipowners' Association should abandon the Northern Steamship Company in the struggle with the Jubilee Company, which is itself subsidised by the Seamen's Union. Fair play and no favour, will be the demand of the public, in view of such an encounter, and Trades Unionism, which is one of the most beneficial and valuable institutions of the age, when wisely guided, does itself irreparable injury when it sets up a \ preposterous claim like this, to be exceptionally considered and treated. In I the face of such an unreasonable claim people will not require to look to the original grounds of dispute, and even the demand of the seamen that the eight hours of daily labour shall be at such hours as they fix, despite the varying necessities of bar harbours and tidal rivers, is not so unreasonable as this later demand that the Northern Steamship Company shall be left to fight the Unions singlehanded. As announced in yesterday's telegrams a ballot is in course of being taken, by the various Seamen's Unions, as to whether they shall strike, or refer the dispute to arbitration, also whether they shall continue to subsidise the Jubilee Company, or withdraw altogether from the struggle ; and unless matters are precipitated by the Newcastle dispute, there seems little doubt that reason will dominate the unreasonable demands of the Seamen's Union, and that peace will be restored in shipping circles.