COAL MINING DISPUTE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 81, 7 April 1910, Page 3

COAL MINING DISPUTE.

CASE BEFORE THE ARBITRATION COURT. [BY TZLEGftAPH — PnESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, 6th April. In the Arbitration Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Sim, the dispute between the Taupiri Coal-mining Company, Ltd., and the Waikato Miners' Union, was dealt with. The main points in dispute were in regard to the minimum wage for hewers (who were otherwise paid by the ton) and the question of hours. The employers contend that durine part of the year one-half of the men should commence to descend at 7.30 , a.m., instead of, as has been the custom, the whole shift descending at 8.30 a.m., and the company also asked that the clause fixing the minimum wage for hewers at 10s lOd a day (the extra lOd being allowed for power and lighting) be deleted, as it had not been found to work satisfactorily. Mr. E. W. Alison, chairman of directors of tho comSany, In the course of his evidence, gave ie" reasons for the company's wishing to have the clause fixing the minimum waged for hewin" eliminated. The miners, he explained, had approached the company and represented that in some very hard patches in the mine a man, | no matter now hard he worked, was | unable to earn the full wage, and they, therefore, thought that in euch cases the company should mako up tho difference. Ihis the company agreod to do, but they were now very eorry for hayI ing done so, as it had been found that in many cases the men had taken advantage of the concession, and had not I always tried to work industriously. Mr. Alison produced a document showing th* i extent to which the amount that had been made up in hewing wa^es by the company in respect of miners unable to earn shift wages had grown. The amount made up by tho company during the first year tliis scheme was in operation totalled £276 12s, during the second i year this grew to £800 3s 3d, and in the third year amounted to £1337 17s 2d. The company was certainly desirous that the men should be paid a living wago, but they should earn it. The court's dechion vras defencd