COAL CONTRACTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 227, 25 September 1930, Page 8

COAL CONTRACTS.

CRITICISM RENEWED.

"SOME WORKERS VICTIMISED"

MR. ENDEAN'S ALLEGATION.

(By Telegraph.— Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

Further references to the Railway Department's coal, contract with the Taupiri. Company ' were made in the House to-day during'consideration of the Railway vote. ' Mr W L. Martin (Labour, Raglan) said" he understood the Department intended to introduce a new type of sparkarrester, and he. inquired whether any companies: outside the Taupiri Company would have an opportunity of tendering | for any extra supplies pf coal .required The Hon." W.'A.. Veitch, Minister of Railways, said that when the contract was made the Railway Department was not .in a position to buy Waikato coal every month during the year.. If the spark-arresting device were succesefu , they would be in a -position to use Waikato coal all the year round. The contract with-the Taupiri Company provided that all the requirements of the Department would be- supplied, by the company. Mr. Martin: So that it might become a yearly contract, and not a seasonal one? ~ ~ Mr. Veitch: Without any alteration in the contract, it might develop into a continuous contract instead of a seasonal one. ... • Position of Miners. Mr. W. T. Endean (Reform, Parnell) said that the reading of a letter the Pukemiro Company had received from the Controller of Stores dated. September 2 was that the acceptance of the tender of the Taupiri Company was for a winter supply. The whole position in the Waikato was becoming very serious, for the other companies/and the workers in the other mines. The effect* of the Government's decision wae to unconsciously victimise certain of the workers —those in the Pukemiro, Renown and Waipa mines. The result would be that the miners in the Glen Afton and Taupiri collieries' would work full time throughout the year, whereas the men in the other mines would not be working more than two days a week in the summer, and three or four days a week in the winter. The -whole transaction was unbusinesslike and indefensible. The whole correspondence ■ showed that the Pukemiro Company was misled. There must have been some engineering somewhere; and it'must have been intended that Taupiri should get the contract, irrespective of what happened.