COAL MINERS’ STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1932, Page 4

COAL MINERS’ STRIKE.

It seems evident from their decision to go on strike that' the coal miners of the Dominion have not yet realised that conditions in New Zealand have changed very materially. It is not so many months since the serious plight of many mining centres in the South Island was made known to Parliament with urgent requests that competition from imported coal should be prohibited by law. The reply the Government was constrained to give was that the safety of Dominion mdustrics must be put first. At a time when owing to the war and other circumstances the coal miners had the trade of New Zealand at their mercy they showed no hesitation in holding up industry in furtherance of demands that were extraordinary. So long as the cost of granting these demands could be passed on to the public the mine owners agreed to them lest worse should befall. The time has come when this is no longer possible. In New Zealand and oversea the price of Dominion coal is driving large users of power to seek other means of obtaining it than coal. The export trade has practically ceased. The home market is challenged by the Increasing use of electricity and oilburning appliances, and, most of all, by the fact that domestic consumption is being severely curtailed by the general need foi' economy. The result has’ been that no coal mine in New Zealand is working at a profit, and the only way in which that condition of affairs can be altered is by a large reduction in working costs enabling coal to meet its rivals on more reasonable terms and so increase the turnover. To bring this about the miners have been advised that wages and conditions must be altered, and that they must be based in future upon what the industry can afford, and not upon some artificial standard. The men’s reply is to go on strike. They have given no heed to the experience of the coal miners in Great Britain, who took exactly the same attitude, and foithe same reasons, six years ago. That strike ended in the defeat of the men and the ruin of the industry in many districts. It is difficult to see any other outcome of a strike in New Zealand.