WAIHI STRIKE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11656, 11 June 1912, Page 6

WAIHI STRIKE.

(Per Press Association.) Waihi, June 10. At a mass meeting o'J miners held today it was decided that the Union would not oppose the mining companies' aplications for protection. It was also agreed that the maximum strike pay be 30s per week and be confined to cases of families in distress. At a mass meeting of the miners on Monday the attitude of the Federation in declining to accept the mine-owners' condition that the Miners' Union and Engine-drivers' Union-must settle their own difference before a conference could take place was approved. The following resolution, passed at the meeting, was handed over to the chairman (Mr W. M'Lennan) for publication, with a statement that it had been carried without dissent: "This meeting of the Waihi Workers' Union resents and emphatically denies the imputation circulated by the capitalistic press or the Dominion that the strike has been originated and is being conducted bv a few individuals, and considers the allegation that the workers are being led as an insult to the intelligent workers i here." Auckland. June 10.

The miners are leaving Waihi by the score. Some are seeking employment in Auckland and others are going further afield. Another batch left by the Wimmera for Sydney to-night. Wellington, June 10. \ conference between the New Zealand Gold Mine-Owners' Association and the Federation of Labor will be held at Waihi on Tuesday, 18th inst,, to discuss on lv—(1) The differences at Reefton as well as those at Waihi, and (2) the question of a new agreement between the Waihi companies and the Miners' Union. The Mine-Owners' Association has absolutely declined to discuss the two unions at Waihi.

' DEPLORABLE STATE OF AFFAIRS. ; Auckland, June 10. ! Miners are leaving AVailn by the ' score. Some are getting employment ' in Auckland, and others a.re going fur- | ther afield. Another batch left for . Sydney to-night. e From- these men something ot the real . truth of the present situation, in the goldfiekls town was"gleaned by a Herald reporter. A married man with five children to keep, as he significantly put ' it himself, was amongst those spoken 1 to. "I simply had to get out." he said. "Mv money has dwindled and dwindled until I had no more than would'keep me for -another fortnight. It was a case of getting work or begging, and I haven't come to that yet, so I broke away and have obtained employment in Auckland. Twenty unions wouldn't have stopped me leaving when to stay meant to see my wife and cliildren starving. They talk of giving out 30s per week per man in strike pay, but;. take it from me. that's all talk. Where are they going to get it from?" _ "There would 'have been no strike if the whole of us had been consulted,'' remarked one of the miners who sailed by the Wimmera. "There is not the slightest doubt that one section of the men caused the whole thing, and the rest of us had to have their 'ism'thrust down, our throats whether we liked it or not. They only have one 'ism,' and that is Socialism. "If the strike lasts for another month," said another miner who was seen on board: the outgoing Sydney boat, "the leaders of the movement stand a big chance of being drummed out of Waihi. Nothing could have happened that is better calculated to knock the Federation of Labor crowd right out. The trouble at Waihi ;s ' that, whilst there is a. strong party of supporters of the Arbitration Court, there are no orators amongst them. On the other hand, the Federation supporters can talk the others into following them blindly. -Then again the Federationists are so intolerant that we who differ from them are not allowed l , to* have an opinion of our own," Other miners 'from Waihi declared that all that enabled them to. stay there, as long as they had was the fact: that the strike came at pay-time. The money drawn then, however, has : n most cases run out now. and a majority of the men, especially the married men, have not much saved. Most of them are now on their "beam ends," and matters are very serious. Houses, for instance, which were let for 25s and 30s a- week are being rented at present for 7s and' Bs. '