COAL WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 96, 26 April 1933, Page 5

COAL WAR.

CONFERENCE MOVE? NO CHANGE AT HUNTLY. MR. BI&HOjP FOR AUCKLAND. The possibility of a conference being held to-morrow of representatives of the coal companies affected by the present trouble is indicated in a report from Wellington that Mr. T. O. Bishop, secretary of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners' Association, will leave for Auckland by to-night's Limited express from Wellington. Following the failure of the Minister of Mines last week to secure a joint conference of the companies with Mr. A. H. Kimbell, Under Secretary of Mines, Colonel W. D. Holgate, president of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners' Association, intimated that he would call all the companies together, provided the Renown Collieries withdrew the deferment of wages notice, which it posted in its mines and two companies requisitioned for the meeting. The reply of the Renown Co. was that it would withdraw its notice on condition the meeting was arranged and the Taupiri and Glen Afton Companies reverted to the selling prices for coal which previously operated. Reports from Huntly this morning show the position there to be unchanged. The Pukemiro and Wilton mines are still working, but tho others are idle. The notice of the Renown Company has not been withdrawn. Meetings of a private nature were held at the different mines to-day, and to-night at Huntly there will be a mass meeting of miners. When questioned on the subject this afternoon, Colonel Holgate declined to confirm the report that a conference of the companies would be held to-morrow. Ho said he had no statement of any sort to make beyond the bare announcement that Mr. Bishop would arrive in Auckland in the morning.