COAL MINERS

Evening Star, Issue 17086, 3 July 1919, Page 4

COAL MINERS

STATEMENT BY FEDERATION SECRETARY. £Pbb Unim-d Prbsu Association.! WELLINGTON, July 3. Referring to the appeal by the Minister of Mines to ex-miaers in oth«r occupations to return to the mines, Mr John Ai-buckle, secretary of the Miners' Federation, tola a 'Post' reporter to-day that it was not possible for any miner to go to the Coast and obtain work'as a coal hewer. The " turn " system was in force, which meant that the truckers 'at present engaged in the mines claimed the right to go ion the L'oal when vacancies occurred. A man going to the mines to-day would have ito stairt ae a trucker and wait his term- to go on the coal. The wages of truckers—lOs 6d per day, phis 30 per cent. —did not compare favorably with the lowest earned by eaw-mill hands (14s), or even with the wages of general laborers. Therefore there was a difficulty in the m'atter of obtaining truckers. This applied to the Denriston, Blackball, and all tho State mines-. Mr ArbiicHe denied: the statement that there was housing for 50 men at Runanga and: Rewanui. He said all the houses at Runanga were occupied. The conditions at Rewamii were such that no woman would ttoke her family there. There were only one-roomed 1 hints, which seldom got the sua, and there was a danger that thoy would slip down the hillside. Two actually did slip down when the occupants wero absent.