STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 9, 5 December 1916, Page 4

STRIKES IN AUSTRALIA.

During bin l past three or four years, ;ul( l .'specially during the last, two rears, hardly a day lias passed in NVw Smith Wales without some large body 0 f ,„,.„ I,«,ing on strike. The strikes average more than one for every working day. ami according to the Sydney ■•Sun" I lie average number of men idle ,„.,. day has been 2500. During the IH-riocl 'beginning August, 191-1 (when t| H . uar commenced) and ending Au„ust l!)lii there were SI I strikes in N,.w' South Wales. 01' these, most have occurred in the mining industry. This industry accounted tor 07 per ~,.,,,. ~|' iI M . strikes, 72 per cent, of the ,„,.,] (1 , workers thrown into idleness, a 11( | S2 per cent, nf the working days lust. During 11)15 there were 3M strikes, 225 being miners' strikes, and the aggregate of working days lost was 170,207. The hiss of working ,1,-ivh during the first eighl mouths ol

i the year was e\ en git n-w ' l """ ' i l )t >ing 520,000, the result ol !>0 ; strikes. Of course the present big strike will make even these huge figures seem small, for there are Urns of thousands of men rendered ; idle. • Thus..- arc facts and figures

which must shake the faith of honest believers in the value of industrial arbitration as a means to peace (remarks the Christchurch Press), and they will be still more distressed to learn that of the 31-1 strikes last year only 23 were settled by arbitration.