School Of Mines Faced With Morale Problem

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31922, 25 February 1969, Page 6

School Of Mines Faced With Morale Problem

(From Our Own Reporter) , GREYMOUTH, Feb. 24. The maintenance of a stu-! dent’s academic morale in the face of fears about the future; of the coal mining industry was the greatest difficulty in! the last year, the director of the Reefton School Mines (Mr; W. J. Bolitho) said in his I annual report. "Far 100 many good men have become fully convinced that there is little or no long-term future in the coal mining industry, and, in consequence, make only a token effort at their studies, or, worse, withdraw from the classes altogether,”' said Mr Bolitho “There was, of course, a definite carry over into 1968 of distress and concern from the 1967 Strongman disaster and resultant inquiries, and when to this was added the confusion and chaos of the severe May earthquake, the closing down at the end of the year of the Dobson mine seemed the last straw that broke the camel’s back. “We as a School of Mines, however, hasten to reassure all students and intending students that we feel sure that the loss of railway and

-gasworks orders will be morel] 1 than taken up by the million I. tons required for the steam electric plant at New Ply-| I mouth; half a million tons for ■, j the steel works; possibly half ( a million tons for making’ aluminium works carbon ano- , - des, plus the seasonal needs [, lof a long row of seasonal 1 , consumers who prefer coal 1 : |as an energy source for their! own particular purposes. “The attention of students!; i is directed to the fact that on | ‘ | the metalliferous side New; I Zealand is entirely bankrupt - of technicians at a time when', all the old mining fields are! .; being subject to the most detailed and sophisticated ‘re- i • look' of all time. “On account of this fact. . i the Mines Department is re- i . vising the Mines Act and this ,I school, together with the ,[T.C.I. have made representa- , - tion to the Working Commit- , 1 tee of Mining Education to .make all subjects (except, of, [jcourse, mining) interchange-’ J able in both coal and metalli- i ferous managers’ certificates,) •■ so that an individual who! , finds himself redundant on, > I one side can readily change 1 over to the other.”