STOCKTON MINE

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 4, 29 September 1944, Page 6

STOCKTON MINE

Open-Cast Method Of Working AGREEMENT REACHED In a statement issued last evening, the Minister of Mines, Mr. Webb, announced that an agreement had been reached between the Government, Downer and Co. Ltd. and the miners’ delegates from the West Coast iu connexion with the system of open-cast working of coal at Stockton. Delegates representing the miners unions on the West Coast visited Wellington on Wednesday, said the Minister, to discuss the situation created,, by the introduction of private contracts in tne open-cast production of coal in close association and interlocking with ordinary coal-mining. For instance, coal won troin open-cast areas at Stockton had to be transported over the same haulage roads which conveyed the coal from the mine itself, and it was necessary for terms and conditions to be drawn up to suit the special circumstances. It would be remembered, said the Minister. that a contract for winning coal by open-cast methods had been entered into by Downer and Company with the former owners-of the colliery, and this contract was transferred to the State when it acquired the property. After a thorough examination of the special situation whicn existed at Stockton a rearrangement ot the conditions of work had been decided on which had the support and co-opera-tion of all concerned. Mr. Webb said that under the new plan of work the clement of private «m--tract would not be operative, but Mr. Downer, his plant and his organization, would be directly employed by the Mines Department on terms and conditions which ensure, on the one hand, that the cost of the work would not be increased, and on the other that the contractor would be treated fairly and protected from loss. .