ADDITIONAL MINERS CEASE WORK

Otago Witness, Issue 2905, 17 November 1909, Page 27

ADDITIONAL MINERS CEASE WORK

DANGER OF A GENERAL STRIKE

SYDNEY, November 13.

The Mount Keira miners put down their tools last night. All the southern miners are now out, and an aggregate meeting of the western miners decided to cease work immediately. It is expected that all pits will be idle to-day. The coke workers at Bulli and Bellambi have been paid off and the works closed.

The strike leaders state that the object of a general strike is to rouse public opinion and coerce the mine-owners.

Mr Bowling has expressed the opinion that the waterside and other unions would come out if called. The spirit of unification among the unions was never so strong as it was to-day. Nothing would be done to hurt the public that could be avoided, but this was a fight for supremacy, and the unions must have all the power, they Could get.

Mr Bowling mentioned that he had offers of assistance from all parts of Australia- imd New Zealand, which, amongst other matters, ' would be considered at to-day's congress.

Regarding Mr Bowling's scheme of working- a colliery or collieries by the Miners' Federation, the pits mentioned are the Young Wallsend and Ebbw Vale mines. Negotiations are in progress, and it is understood that fiteps towards completing the agreement are well advanced.

The effects of the strike are being severely felt in Newcastle. The export

of coal for the week just ended was 1800 tons, compared with 10,000 for the previous week and 80>000 for the corresponding week of last year. The general trade of the town is at a standstill.

Advices received in Sydney state that a shipment of coal has already left Hongkong for Australia, and quotations have been received from Natal and Japan for cargoes deliverable within a month.

Reports from the other States indicate that the effects of the strike are becoming serious.

In Melbourne there is an increasing tendency to reduce the number of hands employed in the large maufacturing and commercial establishments. Where the existing coal-supply ' contracts terminated yesterday, contractors are taking advantage of the strike clauses in their agreements. The Australian Paper-mills Proprietary has closed its works at Melbourne and Geelong for lack of coal.

Asked in the House whether he had not power under the law" of Eminent Domain to work the mines, as Mr Roosevelt intended to do at one time in America,, Mr Deakin stated that the law did not exist to the same extent in Australia as in America. The Commonwealth Government had no control over the lands as the American Government had.