TRADES AND LABOUR.

Otago Witness, Issue 2198, 16 April 1896, Page 29

TRADES AND LABOUR.

Newcastle, April 14.

In consequence of the fear of a strike the price of coal has ad vane 3d locally. At a conference of municipalities st Newcastle, a resolution was carried to interview the Premier, who passes through Newcastle to-night, on the advisability of appointing a court of arbitration comprising three members of the Government, three representatives of the. colliery proprietors, and three representative* of the miners, under the presidency o£ the Governor, to consider the various phasos | and differences in the coal trade of the colony; also that, pending the decision of such court, the miners should continue to work. In an interview, the chairman of one of the mining lodges said that classification of the coal was the greatest stumbling block to an amicable arrangement. In some of the Bmaller pits it was easier to get coal at 2s 6d per ton than at others at 3?, the minimum. IHe laid the blame of the approaching struggle on the masters in secretly reducing the selling prices. SUPREME COURT. . CIVIL SITTINGS. (Before his Honor Mr Justice Williams.) THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL AND OTHERS V. SMITH AND ANOTHER. Claim for an injunction and damages in connection with alleged interference with the natural flow of surface water ,on sections 9 and 10, block VII, Taien district. Mr Chapman, with him Mr J. F. M Fraser, appeared for the plaintiffs, Mr Sim for the defendant Christina Smith, and the Hon. J. MacGregor for the defendant Alexander Smith. The hearing of the case, the evidence in which is remarkably voluminous, was re-commenced at half-past 10, and during the day the following witnesses were called to give evidence in support of the case for the plaintiffs :— John Graham, John Findlay, "William Snow, Robert Hay (surveyor), Robert Gileson, and Peter Murdoch. The court adjourned shortly after 5 p.m , and will resume at 10.30 this (Wednesday) morning.

Four stacks of oats, estimated to contain 1500 bushels, the property of Messrs A. and D. Maopherson, Hokonui, were burned down on Saturday. There was no insurance. The head gaoler at Pretoria is, according to the African Critic, posssjffied of> grim humour. On one of the prisoners chaffing him about the state of his prison, he retorted that it had been built by an Englishman, anyway. He is said to have been somewhat puzzled at the aspect of certain of the prisoners, and asked one of the police officers what they were all in for. " Rebellion," waß the answer. "Oh ! " aaid tbe gaoler, " I thought they were not the same sort of thieves we have had from the Rand tefesei"