PILLAR COAL MINING

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21744, 28 March 1936, Page 16

PILLAR COAL MINING

OBJECTION TO USE OF MACHINES MINISTER EXPLAINS ACTION “The safety of miners’ lives is the Government’s first consideration. To work with machines making a great noise would undoubtedly jeopardise the lives of the men.” This statement was made by the Minister for Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb, in an interview yesterday when he was discussing the success of representations in the North Island to eliminate the use of machines for extracting pillar coal. Mr Webb arrived in ■ Christchurch yesterday from Wellington to spend a lew days holiday before the heavy work of the session commences. He was accompanied by the Minister for Public Works, the Hon. R. Semple. Mr Webb said that following investigations he had made, coal companies in the North Island that had been using machines for the extraction of pillar coal had agreed to discontinue their use for that class of mining. One result had been that 40 more men had been employed. In the Waikato district recently he had been interested chiefly in the inspection of a colliery where miners had protested against the use of a cutting machine for the extraction of pillar coal. After hearing both sides of the case, he had been most emphatically against the continued use of machines for that work. He considered the miners’ attitude was justified, and he had assured the companies concerned that if they continued to use the machines he would ask Parliament to pass legislation to prevent them. However, if the machines could be used with safety, he had no objections. The Minister explained that in the extraction of pillar rcoal the miners listened to the creaking in the mine, and when it was abnormal they knew it .was time for them to get out. But the noise of the machines prevented them from hearing the warning creaks. His attitude was justified, he said, because when miners were being caveled for the work, by mutual arrangement between the mine manager and the unions, all men whose hearing was defective were excluded from the cavel on the ground that it would be impossible for them to hear warning movements of the earth before it caved in. Mr Webb added that during his tour of the North Island mining districts he had appealed to the coal miners to join one miners’ federation, to allow them to speak collectively. If his suggestion was adopted, nine-tenths of the pin-pricking little stoppages that now took place would be avoided.