COTTON AND COAL

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 247, 18 October 1929, Page 7

COTTON AND COAL

BRITISH REORGANISE.

Government's Steps To Put

Industries In Order.

MASTERS AND MEN MEET. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) LOXDOX, October 17. The process of reorganising Britain's staple industries proceeds slowly. Yesterday was an important day for the coal trade.

A Cabinet committee, consisting oi the Lord Privy Seal, Mr. J. H. Tliomas, the President of the Board of Trade, Mr. W. Graham, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Mines, Mr. Ben Turner, received the owners' representatives, who presented their marketing scheme.

I Then the miners' leaders were received and Mr. Thomas outlined the Government's proposals and the main features of the coal owners' scheme for the organisation and co-ordination of marketing, which will operate from January, subject to the representation of the miners and the consumers on a national committee, for which the owners had not provided.

The miners will be given the choice of a uniform working day of seven and a-half hours, plus winding time, or of eight hours, from bank to bank. There will be no reduction in wages.

Mineral royalties are to be nationalised. Pensions and minimum wages will be the subject of future legislation. Interesting details of the reorganisation of the cotton trade were supplied by Sir Kenneth Stewart, chairman of the Lancashire Cotton Corporation, in an address given at Liverpool.

Sir Kenneth said that between 50 and 60 spinning millowners had consented to join the' corporation, which proposed to combine the largest possible number of cotton mills, put them in order, organise them, and provide enough money to finance them properly.

The next .object will be the taking over of weaving mills, and the introduction of the standardisation of cloth. This will involve selling on a large scale.

Sir Kenneth added that he hoped to secure the co-operation of the finishers and merchants. The present state of affairs was of no use to anyone. The export trade must be restored to its old dimensions and made prosperous for the employers and the workers alike.