POSITION GRAVE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1927, Page 9

POSITION GRAVE

NEWCASTLE MINES

DISPUTE OVER WAGES

MENACE OF COAL STRIKE

(United Press Association. —Copyright.) „ (Eeceived Bth February, 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. A conference of coal miners' representatives and owners' representatives at Newcastle, called to discuss the miners' claims for highdr wages and better conditions of work, ended abruptly to-day, when the owners' representatives refused the miners' claims, stating that the bad conditions in the coal industry at present did not warrant them. A miners' delegate bpard has been summoned for to-morrow, when the question of whether the miners will cease work or not will be considered. It is stated that the position is grave. Later. It is anticipated that the meeting of the Miners' Delegate Board will result in the closing of all the mines, throwing idle thirty thousand miners and other colliery workers. Already the trade is slack and half the mines are idle for want of trade. Newcastle is now entirely dependent on the interState and New Zealand''trade, and the owners state that the latter will be further reduced, as New Zealand is devising schemes by which New Zealand coal can be put to more general use in place of Newcastle coal.