DEPUTATION IN A MINE
MINISTER HEARS MEN’S COMPLAINTS MACHINE EXTRACTION OF PILLARS (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) HAMILTON, February 29. In fantastic shadows cast by flickering safety lamps in a mine drive 200 feet below ground level, two Ministers of the Crown, a member of Parliament, mine managers, and men weighed the pros and cons of the dispute in McDonald colliery, Huntly, yesterday afternoon. Whether the use of machines in the pillar workings constituted a menace to the miners was the point at issue, and no words were minced by the speakers as the position was outlined to the Minister for Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb). The party of 20 which formed the interesting audience included the Minister for Agriculture (the Hon. W. Lee Martin), Mr C. A. Barrell, M.P., and Mr A. Tyndall, Under-Secretary for Mines. The managers of all mines on the Huntly coalfields, together with representatives of the Northern Miners’ Union, were present., , As a practical man, Mr Webb had declined to accept finality in the dispute between the men and the management until he had inspected the.pillar workings, so it was that shortly before noon when the party, equipped with acetylene safety lamps and light rain coats, filed through the entrance into a bewildering maze of passages. Poised on the highest point of a fall of coal, the Minister heard the case presented by both sides and crossexamined those who elected to give evidence. For more than two hours, until the acetylene supply was almost exhausted, he inspected a myriad of drives and pillar workings. Subsequently, the Minister said he would state definitely that the Government would not be a party to force men to work in places which they considered dangerous to their lives. He agreed that machine working in pillars was in most cases definitely undesirable. So long as men considered such work was a hazard, he thoughtthe opinion of the men who risked their lives underground should be respected, but if at any time the men and management agreed upon some modified system of machine extraction of pillars that would guarantee the safety that men required, the department could take no exception. Its first consideration, however, must be the safety of the men.
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Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21721, 2 March 1936, Page 12
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369DEPUTATION IN A MINE Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21721, 2 March 1936, Page 12
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