AUSTRALIAN COAL RATIONING

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24345, 25 August 1944, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN COAL RATIONING

SERIOUS EFFECT ON INDUSTRY MANY WORKERS MAY LOSE EMPLOYMENT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) CANBERRA, Aug. 24. It is estimated that 100,000 workers will be rendered unemployed through coal rationing in Australia. In the metal and allied trades, 10.000 workers would be affected almost immediately, it was officially stated to-day, and unemployment would grow rapidly as repercussions were increasingly felt The overall cut in coal consumption to be secured by the Government's rationing plans is 12J per cent. Manpower authorities are now working on schemes to employ many persons displaced from coal-using trades in industries not dependent on coal. About 1000 timber workers in New South Wales will be dismissed during next week, stated an official of the industryThe dismissals would be necessary because of the shortage of railway rolling stock to haul cut timber to market. It is understood the Government win try to avoid rationing of light and power for domestic purposes as long as is possible, but unless the coal production improves quickly it may prove impossible to defer domestic rationing for very long. Some Ministers are reported to be becoming increasingly alarmed about the political effect of the coal position. Seven pits involving about 1300 miners are idle in New South Wales to-day. The Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) has informed the president of the Miners Federation (Mr H. Wells) that further consultations between the Government and the miners would be futile, and that the miners themselves were responsible for the present situation. Action is being taken against the striking miners.