PEACE AT WESTPORT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 106, 28 January 1908, Page 7

PEACE AT WESTPORT.

AGREEMENT SIGNED. THE ARBITRATION COURT TO BE) APPROACHED, . RBQTJEST TO CANCEL A CLAUSE IN AWARD, : ' .(DY TEIfSOIUriJ'-PWB? association.) Westport,. January 27, This conference between tho Ministers, tho miners'-yflplegateis, and tho Westport Goal Company's manager concluded this afternoon • with' a final •Bflttlement of the. bank-te-bank, difficulty- .' '. • The Arbitration Court will be asked to cancel Clause 16 of tho - award (providing for nominal overtime), and to substitute a now clauso providing for a travelling time allowance: of .forty-piglit minutes for the Iron-, bridge jnm9 and thirty-two minutes for the Avnew agreement has boon jigned. , Ministers, in taking the matter in hand personally, i havo done marked service to tho industries of tho Dominion. s \ It-is .understood;: that; the settlement has averted' a prosecution of tho - men by tlio Labour Department for continued breach of, award,- with possiblo' consequential complications. . " ■ '■.'"■■■■ Previous to tho opening of the meeting at i Denmstou, tho minors were determined . not ,to give way, but t|io roasoniug of Sir Joseph' "Ward, Mr. : "Millar/' and .Mr. Colvin tufluoncod .them to'accapta compromise. STATUTE AND AWARD. , ■. PREMIER EXPLAINS. . . . -DEFENCE OF. COURT'S POWERS. , 15 i . ■ Westport, Later. A' representative of tlio " Westport News" interviewed Sir Joseph Ward this afternoon, and" asked . whether he could givo an outline, of w|iat had transpired at the private meofcr , ing. with - the miners at Denniston on tho . prccodmg day, . ,' '. • Tho Premier replied that ho woujd bo ■ , tory: happy, under ordinary; circnnjstances, ,i \o.do; so, ibut he had stated to the miners btmse|f that ho wished the meeting to bo a • private one, and only those belonging t9 ;thp Miners' .Union to.be present, and that it:was< not. in any sense a public meeting, the wholo position and the issues mvqlved being' so far-reaching. : Hp had statetl that "•the mlners™thoso who were ?o deeply, interested—would have from him and his col- ■ • leagues their opinions. upon the situation," and that it would be dono as a matter entirely them sand the men, That being so, he could not, of course, attempt , to-outline the 'speeehes made, but, as-the * miners had themselves .accepted tho proposals in the spirit in which they had been t mado, lie would say. it was in the interests 1 ofv alj-stho mmors,tho Company, and the country l itselfF-that a vorj' satisfactory settlement: of a position which, ha(J lt heen , allowed; to develop, might havo been'very ! serious for all parties concerned, had been effected. ~ '■ .. . tfO INTERFEBENQ? WITH AWAJID, Briefly, he would outline the position: 'Last session of Parliament tho .Coal 'Mines ! 'Act Amendment-Act, providing for eight hours' work from bank to bank, was passed bj tho .Legislature.; The Arbitration Court, which gave an. award a short time ago; arrived at a decision with which the Dennis: toil; Miners' Union- felt - aggrieved, as they considered that the decision deprived them of what ■ Parliament intended Ito give thom when, it passed the clause' in the amending 'Act above referred to; and the result was that they had not up to now complied with tlie.'findings of the Arbitration Court. ;. The- Premier states , that , from the outset he 7?i^do. it. clear that, no memhor of the Government could, interfere with t|ie deeiV sions of the Arbitration Court. These were final; and-binding on the parties, and , the I Court'alone could interpret tho Act of Par- 1 liament referred to, v arid it interpreted the Act to the best of its judgment. . Tho miners .were ®it.entitled to' take up'the stand they had .taken, any . moro than tho Company would have been. 1 Had the decision gone against' the Company, it would not bavo been wVtrwted. .in ignoring tho law, and deciding to go on its own course, The .position was an illegal one, and unless-it were ended the. provisions of the Arbitration Court were bound to have been applied, unless , an;, amicable understanding could be arrived at. .; ; ; - • The Premier hail, with his colleague, visited Westport'with the object of preventing a. development of the trouble, as he had been advised that a position had been reached that could notvpossibly Continue. As a matter of fact, law proceedings- had been commenced on behalf, of tho Minors' Union—proceedings which, ho was legally advised, wore not going to finaljy off pet, a solution of the difficulty, hut which would havo entailed a lo3s to the miners and a 1053 to the country itself. He felt that the position was of so serious acharacter that tho good offices of an independent' person were desirable, and as an, outcome he had.intervened. terms of Agreement. ! What had been arrived at was perfectly simple. A statement between tho Denniston Millers' Union and tho Westport Coal Company — in short, an agreement — had been cpmo to and had been signed that morning', and it me'aiit no loss of'dignity upon either -Bide. By, the agreement tho Court was to be asked to cancel Clause 16 of tho award now in force, and to substitute a clause providing that work underground in a mino.be in accordance with the Coal Mines Act Amendment Act, 1907, and that travelling time be ; forty-oight minutes in the Ironbridge section and thirty-two minutes in the Coalbrookdale section of the Donniston mines, and that the timo for workers underground bo eight hours, exclusive of meal timo. . 1 Three delegates on behalf miners had signed the agreement, as also had Mr. Dixon, tlio district manager for tho Westport Coal Company; so the Premier felt that what might havo grown to bo a serious industrial trouble had been by both parties honourably ended. He took the opportunity of saying that tho miners at Donniston had shown every courtesy and consideration to the representations mado by himself and his colleague'. to thom. They had displayed a fair spirit throughout the whole proceedings, and a decision had been arrived at by their agreeing to the suggestions ho lfad placed before the Miners' Union and tho Wostport Coal Company's directors and its district manager. Ho desired to state that both parties to tho award which had givon rise to tlio trouble had shown tho most praiseworthy desire to place trouble behind them. Ho (the Promier) was also of opinion that next session of Parliament any doubt as to tho original intention of the bank-to-bank clauso should bo removed.