THE GREAT GOAL STRIKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11197, 20 August 1898, Page 3

THE GREAT GOAL STRIKE.

TBRKIBLE SUFFERING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 2. Harrowing stories sf suffering caused by the suicidal strike on the South Wales coalfield have reached me. Actually from 100,000 to 120,000 colliers are, and have been, " out " for the post 12 weeks, and yet there are no signs of yielding on either side. The employees will not give way sod the men know it is idle to think, for the present at any rate, of obtaining the slightest betterment of their old condition. Still, stubborn as Celts can be, thsy remain, with the result of'incalculable misery to vaster nambors than, are included in the ranks of coalhewers. Taking those who gain a living by handling coal on road, rail, or at any of the several ports of shipment, including worker* in steam-power manufactories, and remembering the wives and children dependent upon all classes, the acute sufferers muat pretty well exceed half » million. Let your readers imagine what New Zealand would bo like if every wage-earner in the colony bad ceased to draw any money for 12 weeks ; they will all then be able to. picture something of tho situation,' in •, G;am<rgin«hice and Monmouthshire particularly. Children at school sob for want of food, and funds of poor law guardians are exhausted with the relief j already given, so that even the workhouse pittance is unobtainable. Fcorn the district of' Roath the narrative comes of a shabbily dressed woman baiog seen by a butcher to steal and secrete a piece of liver. Calling a policeman, the butcher and he followed close behind to the house she entered. There, before the following pair could pass the portal, the starving children hacT'seized the raw liver and were eagerly devouring it like ravenous wolves. ''Ate you going to pronecute?" asked ths constable "My good"-God; no!" was the reply, and butcher and policeman made up between them a few shillings for the woman. Horrible as is the tale, I have knowledge that it; is. true, and a type of many similar occurrences. . . Meanwhile, great are the outcries against sending troops to -the strike district—there are some 800 infantry aud cavalry there now; It is contended that this move is entirely unnecetifHry—that .-ill in quiet, and thot soldiers and strikers fester..is. ■■. . Tlihl; may b*, but the Welsh tempsrnrnf.i'. is a somewhat uuenrtain . one. More law-abiding communities thanlh'-se of Wales it would, ordinarily, be difficult tp find ; but when roused, and! particularly when ho tbinks he is right, the average Cymro can be very obstreperous, and, in his "excitement, not averse to taking tho. law iuto hia own i hands. The bullet boles in the, pillars of the .-' entrance porch of oae of the leading hotels in \ Newport (Monmouthshire) . b«ar evidence to ; Tnffy's de6<-rmio»tion in Chartist days. Not i go many years ago, over a- works quarrel at ' Aberdare, he cleared every stick of furniture out of every bouxe occupied by members of another branch of the Celtic'family, one of whom had given just cause of offence, and made bonfires of tables'! and chairs in the widdlo of the streets'. And it i» not so very long ago we had the tithe riots hi West Cambria. Probably the tendency to "boil over" when least expected is the ground on which the authorities base their despatch of ; troops to the dißtrict. . J The Associated Colliery Owners, whom the men are now stolidly fighting, have been decedbed by si.omw <it the metropolitan newspapers as being "a. one-man association." If that ba so, the "one man" is Sir 'William Tboma« Lewis, the originator of the sliding scale, and, since its ioceptiou, the chairman of the body known by its name. A nativ« of the place, he himself a< a young man work«d underground ; then, educating himself as a mining mgineer, ho rose umil he reached the top of the tree. He is now the-Marquis, of Bute's agent, and is himsftlf reputed to be a milHonair*. A man of iron, without question, is .he. Lord Bute, as many pnople know, is supposed to be the original of Beseo'nsfield'*' "Lotnair.."'., At any rate, he is a staunch R..>man Catholic, . During a labi.ur dispute some years »go at the mjrquiVs dock* Ben Tillett. invited the aid at Cardinal Manning. Like another-William, btywever, the We!"h knight - popsexses a.." mailed fist," and, ir> ftpiie.of that high intervention, would not relax his grip. Thi* js the m»n the strikers have to fight. They knowMheir man and his strength, and, being of ;the same race, .they are collectively, if not individually, ag stubborn. In 1875.they stayed "out" longer than they bave been at the present'jnncturp ; but from all appearances the strike of 1898 will be hist'ri'c for its length and horrible suffering. L»tfsfc rumours .are thab some of tho mines arc-to be worked by men-of-warsmen to supply coal for thftfli-et. ..This, however, is tha wildest speculation. No more fiery, pits are to be found beneath the world's crust thau in South Wale«, and'great experience and "Caution are requirsd to work in' them. Wheiii»n explosion occurs there not units, but tensj'-ftye, and hundreds too,; meet their deaths.—Ofle bit of over-confi---dence on ihe part'of Jack T* Tri and in an instant theremight be » greater loas of life than in a dozen Spanish-American wars.