THE TRIBUTE SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 143, 19 June 1931, Page 6

THE TRIBUTE SYSTEM

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —If the contributor o£ the article on West Coast coal mining which, you published last evening is really a "mining authority," his carelessness in dealing with a subject which is causing bitter controversy amongst the miners is inexcusable. There is no such thing as a tribute system of mining operating in any West Coast colliery. The term is derived from a system occasionally used in gold mines under which a party, of miners agreed to work a mine as if it were their own, and pay to the' owners thereof a predetermined percentage of the gold won; No such arrangement exists in coal mines, or so far as liknow, ever has existed. Coal mining on the West Coast is being carried on to-day by proprietary companies who employ labour and by co-operative parties of miners who hold small areas under lease from the State; and work these in their own interests. Such parties have been working for the last ten years, and have steadily increased their output. A number of the co-operative parties employ some labour outside their own shareholders, for which they pay wages. The party which has commenced work at Blackball differs from other co-operative parties oh the West Coast only in that it holds its lease from the Blackball Coal Company instead of from the State. It is free to dispose of the output from its lease in any way it pleases. > In the proprietary companies' mines the actual mining of the coal is usually paid for at' piece rates, and other work at daily wage rates. At some mines, however, notably Charming Creek, Cascade, Paparoa, and several in the Keefton district, the whole of the work is done under contract. In each of these caseß the men employed have formed themselves into cooperative contract parties and have accepted a contract from the mine owner to mine and deliver coal, at a fixed point at a price agreed upon. These .arrangements are straißht-out contracts participated in by all hands, and are similar to

tho contract lot by the Wellington City Council some years ayo to a co-operative parly of miners hcudcrf by Mr. K. Semple. Tlje Coal Mines Agreement i'or the West Coast, Clause 25, reads . . . "the management shall have the right to contract for the execution of special work either underground or on the surface, or to make contracts for trucking, tipping, or any other class of work." The principle of ; contracts is therefore recognised and , accepted by tho unious, and it is difficult to see any difference in principle ' between a contract for a section "of the ' mine work and a contract for the whole ; of it. . ...... The statement that a system o£ _ cooperative contracts breaks down conditions \ of employment is deliberate lying. On the ; contrary, under such a system the/workers s control their own conditions subject only [ to the provisions of the Coal Mines Act and Regulations. In no other way could they obtain such freedom of control. 1 What the co-operative contract system r does do, however, is to enable actual t workers to negotiate directly with owners of coal mines without the intervention of official go-betweens, and that is the simple 1 reason for tho stirring up of all the > present agitation against a system of . working which is best calculated to serve i the mutual interests of those who have : adopted it.—l am, etc./. »' T. 0. BISHOP, ? Secretary, N.Z. Coal Mine Owners' 1 Association. ' . , ■-