THE COLLIERS' STRIKE AT SHAG POINT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1313, 22 June 1880, Page 2

THE COLLIERS' STRIKE AT SHAG POINT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL,

Sir, —I shall feel obliged if you will insort the following contradiction to the miners advertisement in your paper—which would lead the outside public to imagine they wore a badly used lot of men, and wore worked all sorts of unseemly long hours. In the first place, the men are on by the ton, and the hours for work are eight except when a press of orders come in and then they are asked to work longer, but thoy will not do it. Why ? Because thoy can earn as much in seven hours' as they want to. I have to pay now to day men who are averaging 13s per day, and yet one man who lias averaged for the last nine working days' 14s 6d per day, told me it was not enough to keep him, and ho could live just as well ati the Christchurch soup kitchen. It iis time, Mr. Editor, that the publio should know how little safety there is for anyone to "embark capital in any undertaking when you are at the mercy of men who, without a minutes notice, leave work, positively refuse to sign any rules or agreement, and when they please stop work. Wo have decided to make a stand against this, even with the great annoyance of not being able to supply orders for a few days. Trusting that you will insert this and also keep the matter before the publio in a fair and impartial light.—l am, etc., W. H. Williams, Manager. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMAItU MAIL. Sir, —Surely something must be rotten in the state of Denmark when the colliers ( , x \ Shag Point are again on strike. It apptwN ' that the fire which broke out about three or four years ago in the old pit has broken to a oertain extent in the new, and tho miners are nearly suffocated in consequonoe. In fact, one might judge of the foul air existing when a lighted taper or candle is extinguished. Now, Mr. Editor, when such a state of things exists, don't you think it is high time Government made an inspection, in order to ward off such a calamity as bofol the poor victims at Kaitangati, lam suro no one in the Provinae of Otago would wish to see or hear of a similar disaster.—l am, &c. Veritas. [Our correspondent puts a different complexion upon the strike from that given by an advertisement in the interests of tho colliers which appears elsewhere, That adver•tisement makes no mention whatever of foul air in the mine, but merely intimates that "tho men are 011 strike for the following:—Gd per ton advance j 8 hours labor; pay fortnightly," If our correspondent is correct, he has per. tainly performed an act of justiao in drawing attention to the presence of foul air iu tho mine; but if, ou the other hand, ho lias merely raised the. ory to deter men from applying for work in the mine, 110 has boon guilty of an action deserving of the severest censure. The matter is, however, one that demands inquiry, iu order that tho public mind may be set at rest.—Ed. 0. M.)