STATE COLLIERIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 273, 17 November 1910, Page 5

STATE COLLIERIES.

i LONG MST OF COMPIiAINTS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHErSTCHURCH, this day. The "Mtiorijand Worlier," the organ of the New Zealand Federation of Labour and the Shearers' Union, in its current 1 } number, publishes an article ? on. State j coilierie3, showing that 200 men were i injured in two years—Bs in 1910 —and j urges the need of hospital and ambulance j appliances and the establishment -of a J cottage hospital at Point Elizabeth. The j article alleges that nothing has been done j to remedy insanitary conditions in the • j mines, which are described as abominable. The paper urges that the law applying ! to quarts mines should be made applicable | jto coal mines. Bathrooms and changing | rooms are also needed. The accommodation for miners near the mines and in the State township is also warmly criticised. Tie State's efforts to provide decent houses at Kunanga ended with the erection of seven or eight cottages. Private landlordism is alleged to be rampant. Miners, it is stated, for the most part live in miserable huts and shacks. The town has not a drainage system, water supply, or lighting. N With regard to the management of the mine, it is alleged that there is still grave danger of flooding owing to the inadequacy of the pumping plant