A Tip from the Turks
Maoriland Worker, Rōrahi 13, Putanga 47, 21 Whiringa-ā-rangi 1923, Page 7
Mō tēnei niupepa
A Tip from the Turks
'■ Latest regulations of working conditions in Turkish coal mines have been communicated to the British Government by. His Britannic Majesty's commercial secretary at Constantinople in a dispatch dated May 14, 1923; ."•■"■; :
The Turkish regulations provide that on each pay day a sum equal to 2 per cent, of the total wages bill, which is riot 16 be deducted from the workers' wages, must he handed over by the 'employer to the savings and mutual benefit fund of the workers' trade union for the upkeep of hospitals and relief reserves to be established by tke union.
This may not. be a 1 complete provision, but it is far in advance of anything existing on the New Zealand fields. . .'.'..
It is also notable that the Turks have determined to put an end to the hoveldom which has besmirched the coal mining industry in the past.
Not only are the wages of miners to be the first charge on the industry, but the employer must also erect dwellings, schools, and -mosques of an approved type, so that decent civilised homes and surroundings for women and their families shall be a condition: of. coal mining enterprse.
Under honourable regulations of this kind the Turkish coal mining industry has a chance of developing into one of the respectable growths of civilisation. —
Can the same be said in Maoriland?
If not, will Minister of Mines Anderson follow in the footsteps of the Unspeakable Turk?
