COAL OUTPUT FALLING

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 225, 21 June 1939, Page 11

COAL OUTPUT FALLING

Miners May Have To Be Imported PRESENT WORKERS BLAMED Reported Unwillingness To Work Full Week Dominion Special Service.. CHRISTCHURCH, June 20. Consideration may be given to the importation of miners to work New Zealand mines if no other solution can be found of the present difficulties in maintaining the normal output, according to the president of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association, Mr. C. C. Davis. So far this year coal was being imported at a rate of 140,000 to 150,000 tons yearly, Mr. Davis said today, compared with past importations of 110,000 to 120,000 tons yearly. There was no need to import coal at all if the normal output could be secured from the existing mines, and the behaviour of the miners was solely responsible for the shortage. No solution was at present in sight, said Mr. Davis, who discussed the situation with the Minister of Mines, Mr. Webb, when the Minister was in Christchurch recently. “In spite of the Minister s efforts to reduce imports of coal and make trade available to our New Zealand mines, Mr. Davis said, “and in spite of every endeavour by colliery companies to assist him in this, results are definitely disappointing. Imports are actually increasing when the reverse should be tilt* c<isg, “I say, without hesitation, that the Minister has done everything he can do to help. The trouble is that the men won’t work. There will have to be some means of enabling mines to work longer hours to overcome the difficulty, whether by working two or three shifts, or otherwise. It might be necessary to cut tiie week in half, and have one half of the men working one half of the week and the rest of the men the other half. It might even mean the importation of additional miners. If our men will not work ful normal time, it will be necessary to find more miners, even if they have to be brought from overseas. , “The Minister has stated on several occasions that he would have to reconsider the matter of granting new leases to permit more mines to' open. This would not help the position at all, and would only add further embarrassment to existing mines. High Wages Blamed. ‘"The real reason is not difficult to find,” Mr. Davis continued. “It can be baldly stated as being caused by miners earning more money than they are accustomed to, leaving (hem with no necessity to go to work regularly. “To illustrate this, the superintendent of State Collieries pointed out in his last annual report that coal hewers at .State mines earned on an average £l/16/3 a day—in other words, £9/1/3 for a five-day week. Earnings at other collieries are equally high. “It appears that three or four days weekly, at such rates, provide these men with all they want, and, consequently, the most trivial excuse is sufficient to render a mine idle for a day, or else the men just fail to turn up. “Some of our larger mines are losing up to 25 per eent. of normal output through excess absenteeism and provocative stop-work meetings over trivial matters.”

Mr. Davis cited the case of a large West Coast mine, which had averaged only seven days a fortnight for the last seven months. “It might be asked why are not other men put on to fill the places of those who do not turn up to work?” he said. “The peculiar nature of colliery w’ork prevents this. Working places in the mine are allotted every three months to parties of two men to each place, in which they work for the period. This ■privilege is very jealously guarded by unions and replacement is not permitted except for exceptional reasons. “This excess absenteeism has a disastrous effect on the cost of coal-winning, for the full staff of officials and daily wage men has to be maintained whether the mine is .producing the whole or only portion of its normal output. The number of officials and wage men is generally twice that of the actual coalhewers. The expense of ventilation and pumping goes on over the whole 24 hours, whether the mine produces 50 tons, 500 tons or no coal at all. Appeal for Co-operation. “The remedy for this state of affairs lies entirely with the men,” Mr. Davis said. “A little co-opera-tion from them would enable tiie Dominion to be entirely self-sup-porting in this important branch of industry. The men themselves would benefit, the industry would be more prosperous and the Dominion exchange position would be helped considerably. “(New Zealand mines are equipped for, and are capable of producing, the whole of the Dominion’s requirements. Though special purposes may necessitate the importation of a small tonnage, it should not be anything like the quantity coming in at present.” Mine owners earnestly .joined in the Minister’s appeal to miners to avoid stoppages over trivial matters, and to give more consideration to the industry that provided their livelihood by regular attendance at work. “The hazardous and often unpleasant nature of mining work is fully recognized, and good wages are never grudged,” Mr. Davis concluded, “but good wages carry also an obligation, or they cannot continue.”