MINES STILL IDLE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 81, 6 April 1943, Page 4

MINES STILL IDLE

DISPUTE OVER DOCTOR NORTHLAND MEN'S ATTITUDE (0.C.) WHANGAREI, this day. The Hikurangi and Kamo coalfields were idle to-day as a result of the decision of a mass meeting of miners yesterday that work would not be resumed until the Miners' Council received an assurance that a doctor would be made available in Hikurangi. The attitude of the Waro quarry employees, who, although ceasing work for the afternoon to attend the meeting, did not necessarily bind themselves to the decision reached, and resumed work to-day, was freely citicised. Employees of the Hikurangi Dairy Company, although approached, decided to continue working in the meantime. The chairman, Mr. D. H. Cochrane, president of the local Miners' Union, said the Hikurangi miners had decided to cease work if and when Dr. D. Armstrong vacated his residence, as he did yesterday. "The Minister of Labour, Mr. Webb, at Hikurangi last week, said that if we ceased work he would close the place, but that didn't frighten us," Mr. Cochrane said. "This is not a strike, but an indignation meeting." The Hospital Board's proposal to remove the doctor's residence from Hikurangi has also caused unrest. The secretary of the Cement Workers' Union said he believed :the employers and men would do all they could to secure a doctor, but there was a wish to avoid a strike if possible. "The Government is not taking an interest in the miners and the doctor question," said a miner. Another speaker said that in other countries a doctor was stationed in every mining camp. The men would be fools to go down into the mine and risk a serious accident when there was no resident doctor. It was. proposed that the miners should continue idle until a doctor was placed in Hikurangi, and that no meeting be held until he was actually in residence. The mover. of the motion contended that unless an embargo was placed on meetings a secret ballot might result in the men returning to their employment without securing their objective. An amendment that the miners remain idle until the Miners' Council received an assurance that a doctor would be made available, a further meeting then' to be called, was carried by 49 votes to 39. Quarrymen refrained from voting. Discussion on the question of doctors being able to please themselves where they practised resolved itself into a motion that the Labour party be asked to send a remit to the Easter Conference requesting that medical practise should be made an essential industry. This resolution was carried.