GOLD MINING DISPUTE

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 16

GOLD MINING DISPUTE

FOUR UNIONS CONCERNED CLAIM FOR INCREASED WAGES (Per United Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 11. The third day’s hearing of the Waihi gold mining dispute, in whicn four unions are claiming increased wages, shorter hours; and alterations in the working conditions from the Martha Gold Mining Company (Waihi), Ltd., and the Golden Dawn Mines, Ltd., was taken in the Arbitration Court to-day, when the mining section of the dispute was completed. Further evidence was brought by the employers to rebut the claim of the union that the companies could afford to pay increased wages and to support the companies’ contention that the increased costs would make the mining of the dying claims uneconomical. Later each party reviewed the case. For the applicant unions Mr J. Roberts, of Wellington, said the Reefton awards had always been as high or higher than Waihi’s wage rates. The union wanted a minimum wage, and there was no reason why the men should not be given one. As for the shorter hours, every effort had been made by the Martha Company to prevent the 40-hour week from operating. Both battery and transport were worked under the 40-hour week in more difficult mines. “ It has been said there is a danger of the mine dying if taxed by increased wages,” said Mr Roberts. “ The court has been told the same thing for the last 20 years.. Immediately after it was said in 1922 a dividend of 20 per cent, was paid. In 1931 the mine was given two years to live, in 1922 two or three years, and in 1912 it had not long to live. It is a healthy mine still. Last year £IOO,OOO was distributed in dividends.”

Mr Milligan had said the men had blocked conferences. The company had never ceded one penny to the men unless confronted by the threat of a strike or an actual strike or an Arbitration Court order. Auckland shareholders of the company had given the people parks and gardens. The company had given its men

graves through the miners’ complaint. In deciding what wages should be paid, Mr Roberts said the court should be swayed by the dangerous nature of the miners’ work, the shift work they had to do, the dividends paid by the company, and the court’s own recent decision in the Blackwater dispute. ' This concluded the miners’ section of the dispute, and the court proceeded to deal with the enginedrivers’ section.