RESTRICTING THE OUTPUT OF COAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 14 August 1890, Page 24

RESTRICTING THE OUTPUT OF COAL.

(Fbom Oca Own Correspondent.) 1 Westpobt, August 11. Here, as elsewhere, the Labourers and Miners Union are very active." The latest is that the local unions, instructed by the Maritime Council, have restricted the output of coal from the fWeßtportf WeBtport Company's mine to 4000 tons a week. The company could with an effort nearly double that output, but the fiat has gone forth and is being respected. A party of men, Haylock and others, who own a small coal mine near Waimangaroa, have also become the victims of the arbitrary action of the union, inasmuch as that union men have been instructed not to get coal 'from Haylock and party's mine, arguiDg* I be'lievfe, that had not the Brunner difficulty cropped up Haylook would probably have been without orders, consequently the union attempt to prohibit his output. This party were employing union men and paying union wages. I believe the general public here, including many of the working classes outside the more extreme 'unionists, consider the action of the union very arbitrary. The time will come when the uniooß, : especially the Miners' Union of this district, will have cause to regret imposing such conditions as they are doing to gain a temporary supremacy over capital. The ultimate result seems inevitable—that is capital, which is always sensitive, will steer e'ear of a colony where unionism departs from its proper function aad becomes tyrannical Every right-minded person recognised the value of combined effort on the part of the wageearning class to demand reasonable hours and good wages, but deplore the action of unionists which tend to paralyse trade and discourage industries.