QUEENSLAND TROUBLE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue 148, 11 September 1925, Page 3

QUEENSLAND TROUBLE.

DISCUSSED IN THE ASSEMBLY. NO CONFIDENCE MOTION DEFEATED. SERIOUS DEVELOPMENTS AT MOUNT MORGAN. (Electric Telegraph.—Copyright). (Received This T . 10.25 a.m.) BRISI F This day. In the Assembl no-confidence motion was defeat* y 35 to 23. At a mass meet >1 strikers at Mount Morgan it ; urged that a telegram he sent t he Home Secretary. Mr Stopford, asking that no police reinforcements be despatched to Mount Morgan, also advocating that the local police should be requested not to interfere with the miners. The men are demanding that when the mine resumes surface hands be paid the new basic wage of £4 5s with a 44-hour week and a 40-houi week for underground employees. As the result of fires being drawn it the mine, the railway station and many other institutions drawing electric power therefrom have been piling ed into darkness. Representatives of the engineers carpenters, engine-drivers, and electricians reported that their organisation had unanimously decided to stand behind the miners. None of their members remained on duty after eight o'clock last night. It was stated at a meeting that M> Stopford had telephoned that the new basic wage would not apply to Mount Morgan. The president of the Enginedrivers’ Union stated that the presi dent of the Arbitration Court would visit Mount Morgan and hear the flaims to-day. The chairman of the Disputes Com mittce, Mr Lynch, interviewed, said the basic wage at the mine was £3 18s 6d. but when loss of time through holidays and the continual closing of the mine was taken into account, the wage would not reach £3 5s per week for the year. In no other place in Australia were men asked to accept inch a miserable wage. Members of the Strike Committc • said they wanted members of the skiff io join them because in 1921 the lock-out staff manned the mine and kpt it dry and the levels and all property in good order, so that the mine could be reopened at a moment *s Mice. The workers realised that if such a thing were allowed on this occasion the lock-out would go on infiniti ly. As the staff had decide d to stand by the company the meeting wnsidcred the matter. The feeling that since moderate means had been used without success the only to meet the case was by foretug out the men who still worked in the mine.—(A. & N.Z.)