The basis of the miners’ dispute

Kaitangata is wearing its usual calm and peaceful air, and the casual visitor would not really guess that work at the mine, which is the very reason of the town’s existence, has been almost completely stopped all this week.

Noone needs to be told how serious and farreaching such a stoppage is in these days, but an adequate cause for such great effects is not easy to discover. It is safe to say that in this case, as usual, the cause does not lie on the surface; but careful enquiry among representatives of both parties and of neither party leads pretty definitely to the conclusion that the dispute is an internal one among members of the Miner’s Union. This makes it all the more regrettable that the company has become involved in it, and finds itself at issue with the union where there is really no ground of complaint between them. The essential facts seem to narrow themselves down to these: there are perhaps a dozen members of the union who have long been out of harmony with the rest.