THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1905

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume V, Issue 1227, 19 January 1905, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 1905

Ho'e simll the "reus the I'uuplo's lii:*lit maintain Uiiawed by influence and unbribtid b.y gain ; Here patriot Truth he si ?n->us precepts di»v» Pls'iKed to Religion I.ibert.v *n<i liaw

From the Australian cablegrams of the last few days readers will have gathered that the strike ot wheelers in the coal mines at Newcastle has a'snmed a most critical phase. They will have learned that the men have been threatened \vith the extreme course of the law if they persist in setting at defiance the ruling of the Arbitration Court, before which the now famous dispute was taken for decision. Up to the present there is no sign that the men will comply with the ruling, but all" well-wishers of the mining industry and of those out on strike will earnestly hope that even at the eleventh hour an arrangement vviil be made by which extremes will be averted, and that the arrangement will stand good until a better state of things is mutually and permanently agreed upon. By the present strike thousands of men are affected, the industry for the time is paralysed, the shipping trade is affected seriously, and coal has risen to abnormal values. A reference to the cause that-led to the action of the wheelers will ptrhaps be interesting. Six months ago the price of coal at Newcastle was eleven shillings per ton, but at the end of August the owners gave notice of a reduction to ten shillings, with a

reduction of threepence in the hewing rate, or, in other words, a reduction of 20 per cent, in the Belling price and of 10 per centjin the hewing. Upon this the miners appealed to the Arbitration Court, which de cirled that the reduction in price should not involve a reduction in the rate of pay. In December the colliei-y owners gave notice of a reducti&iijiji price to nine shillings Lnf* reduction to come into for«£ on the Ist of January, and at the time .they gave notice of a reducifoil in the* hewing rata-by fonrpence. The men appealed agnin, but tlvaf|;Arbitralion Cpiirt decided that the ownc r8 of the Nf:w£astle mines'were entitled to reduce fhe sellin||jpi'icej and that the reduction in </arry witl|;ir, a reduction in hewing ratei; The wheelers have refdst J to, accept the redgciiao, arid quetic© neaj£l? six thousand meri'f arW* oujLof wotk. riieyybave been threatened by 6h«jl :J . ... ''Of

Attorney-General with proceedings under the criminal clauses if j hey do not return to work, but on behalf of the men legal advice has been given that there is iioftjprovision in the Act for the punishment, of the wheelers, and that the award is binding on the owners and miners only. This is a grave "discrepancy, and workers as well as employers will agree that on logical grounds it is certainly onesided. Miners are of no use without wheelers.'fhe latest phage of the crisis is to the effect that an effort is being made by the Attorney-General to induce ihu men to return on condition that the Court will immediately sit. at Newcastle and again go into the agreed to there is a possibility that a great deal of suffering by the men and loss to the companies will be averted.