What threatened to be a disastrous and prolonged strike on the. New South Wales coalfields has been averted by a settlement of the dispute following a compulsory conference between representatives of the colliery owners and the miners.
By the terms of settlement, contract miners, who sought a restoration of the 12% per cent. wage reduction imposed in 1930, will receive an increase of 10 per cent; day wage employees will receive a 5 per cent. increase, compared with the 2% per cent. cut made seven years ago; and the principle of a minimum wage has been established on the northern fields. Accepting these material gains, the miners are not pressing, for the time being, their claims for reduced working hours, the granting of which, according to the owners, would bring calamity to the industry, Even the miners' officials do not deny that many mines have been operating for years on a low margin of profit and that others have made no profit at all.
The agitation which preceded the conference was notable for the fact that it provided Australian unionists with their first opportunity to indulge in "stay-in" strikes.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.