THE LIVERPOOL MINE

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 April 1914, Page 2

THE LIVERPOOL MINE

THE STATE'S NEW .VJU T ?".. APPLICATION FOR AN .:D. The Arbitration Court sat last night rom 8 o'clock till 10 p.m., and resumed .gain this morning at 9 a.m. The Liverpool Mine (State) proposals were considered, the same representatives appear ng on behalf of the Department and Union respectively as appeared in the .\o. 1 mine dispute. ' PROPOSED RATES.

The management propose the hewing fates in solid places to be as follows: 4ft to 4ft 6in, 2s 8d; 4ft 6iu to sft, 2s 6d; '.ft to Bft, 2s 6d; Bft and over 2s 2d pei ton. . The Union's proposals for "solid rate.' are as follows:—4ft to 4ft 6in, 3s 6d ; 4ft Gin to sft, 3s 4d; sft to sft 6in, 3s 2d; sft 6in to 6ft, 3s; 6ft and over, 2s Bd. EVIDENCE FOR MANAGEMENT. The evidence of James Sowerby, manager of the Liverpool mine, was taken to show that the Liverpool mine seams were 1 more easily worked than that of the State No. 1 mine, and in consequence there should be comparatively a loss rate per ton for hewing the coal. The Liverpool -.earn compared with that of Paparoa mine—in fact, it was only 2i miles distant. At present the- miners were em >loy'cd at the Liverpool mine on day wages, but he could not say the men were sriving a fair return in labour for he wages paid. He had told some of the miners this.

*n rcoiv 10 Six Coppersmith witness uMlu cue men »ui: nut piuuuc'liifc . u mciuu coal ior uie muiKj j.-aiu. .u.

could put it «s "loaiing" i uiicu, ijUL Uiub uas nia opinion.

Me damca l>isiiop, local manager, ui. jUioecl uie isos. I'i, 6 aim o seams m uk -inerpoui colliery. jNo. I \.as tuna, olt u ._ju, iNo. '2 was Uie same steam as iNo. I, „nu aoout I4ft in lieignt, it \aned a goo.. M&l, but 14ft average; iN0...0 was souk aidtaiice from the outer, .and was aboui wit to 10ft. The character of, coal in Nos. l and y was friable, but INo. 3 was a muci. aartter coal. Under the proposals set out jy the management the average earnings .should not be less than 15s per day for a fair day's work, the same prices p.oposec. for No. 3 (a slight increase proposed) should give the same result;- The present daily wage system at the Liverpool mine had not given satisfaction, and he had written to the Union to that effect two months ago, but got no reply to the letter. The living conditions, were not of the best, but they were trying to improve these by building huts for single men and cottages for others. The living conditions at Paparoa and Liverpool were similar, the former had the advantage. The Paparoa and Liverpool were on exact seams, and should give similar results. He thought amah could cut a four-feet holing m No. 1 in three hours, in No. 3 about five hours; this time, is not entirely lost to the miner, for it was done to shoot the ;oal. He did not think the men seriously expected to get- the prices asked by them; uiey were asking plenty «o. as to get jlenty or sufficiently little. No minc.wner could afford to pay-the demands by the men. In regard, to the cavilling ulause he pointed out that the Union had rat in a long list of accidents as.having lappencd in the No. 1 mine, and he believed these were principally. caused by neglect or incompetence of the men, and he thought some power should be given to the management to determine that only capable men be sent to dangerous places. It would be better to exclude incompetent len from the first ballot than to ask them > leave the work after. having drawn a 'high pillar." He had entered into drivng°contracts with several pairs of men on No. 1 seam, and they ,had made res pectively lis, 11a 2d, £1 3s 7d, and 17f id per day. Had these contractors been m tonnage rates now proposed to be paid iv the management thev would have averaged 19s 6d,~215, 15s 2d, 13s, and 20s 5d per man per day, a general approximate werago of 20s per day.

To Mr Arbucklc: He thought Paparca ,vas paying less than the State proposed. Any coal above Bft in that mine would be ,ood work for.the miner at Za ZA, There may be fault stone.in patches. In the average allowances above quoted no allowmce »»as made lor blasting. ..He did not think the coal cost 3s 6d, while the men ,vere driving; there was a trucker there .vho may have assisted the men; there were five contractors, and the trucker may .iave assisted all of them. The witness said the sizes of the contract drives as put .n were those as specified in the contract; if these had been altered he knew nothing of it. He received a verbal acknowledgment from Mr Jackson on meeting him one day in regard to "slowing up" of miners on dav wages; Jackson had promised a written reply; he had not been informed that the men attributed the cause to hardness and other drawbacks in the coal.

James Leiteh, Blackball mine manager, said he had examined the Paparoa mine on Saturday and the Liverpool mine on Monday, and, if anything, lip considered the conditions at the Liverpool were more favourable to the men. The roof in the Paparoa required sets of timber, most of the Liverpool mine could bo carried on without such timber. The cutting at Paparoa was much harder than at the Liverpool. The result of a. shot fired at Liverpool, afetr a cut had been made, Liverpool, after a cut had been made, down fivo or six tons. He did not sec "holing" places at Liverpool as hard as some lie saw at Paparoa. If the State had to pay the rates demanded by the Union lie ' did not think the Liverpool mine would be a paying concern ; Blackball would not pay under that scale. From what he could see of the conditions at the Liverpool mine ho did not think the men dad put in a fair day's work. The statement put in showed the cost of mining at Liverpool, which was too high and unpayable.

To Mr Coppersmith: So far as witness, knew the men did not cut their own coal at Paparoa; but at Liverpool they lid. In cutting lie came across stone in cutting in No. 5. Milligan told him.it was an extraordinarily good shot; witness had said, "Yes, it was always a funny thing they only got good shots when the boss came round." He saw no road boys working in the wet.

John Baync, manager of the Paparoa mine, said lie inspected the Liverpool mine on Monday last, and agreed generally with the evidence given by the last witness, except, that hn would sav the coal was even harder to get. at Paparoa compared with Liverpool. He did not think the men at Liverpool were, nutting in a lair day's work. The men would be able to make higher wages than made at Papa

;oa if they were-given the conditions proposed by the State. To Mr Scott :The Paparoa .and Liverpool were practically the same geological formations, the Panaroa might be softer. To Mr Arbucklc: Occasionally men did their own cutting at Paparoa; but they were not forced to, and they did their own firing. There was the same amount of stone in seams in the coal at Paparoa as it Liverpool. John Hayes, mining engineer, and Brown (mine manager at Denniston) corroborated the evdiecc of the previuos witnesses. Mr Brown, in reply to Mr Kimbell, said hero was no very great difference in the iiving conditions at Denniston and Liverjool, and similar conditions to Liverpool existed at Granitv.

Mr Sowerby, recalled, said the average cost of powder during the contracts •".'./ Liverpool was about Is 8d per day ior each pair of men. This concluded the evidence for the .rianagement. CASE FOR THE UNION. Mr Coppersmith outlined tho case for the Union as follows: The Liverpool is a new colliery with three mines, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. They have not yet been worked on tonnage rates; up to the present they have been worked o.i a wage of 12s per .day for mining, while die same wages as those prevailing in L J omt tlizabeth No. 1 have ruled for other classes of work in the mines. The Union will call evidence to prove that the coal, is very hard to get'j and in addition to'ari adequate tonnage rate will >isk the Court to insert a clause in the agreement to secure the miner a minimum wage of 12s, that is to say where miners cannot make this wage on tonnage the wage shall be made up to 12s per shift for miners. The Union would also like to point out to the Court that the workings are inclined to be steep in the Liverpool colliery, especially in INo. 2, where tlie coaJ lies at an any e of fully 60 degrees, and Uie elements of danger dealt with at tho Point Elizabeth mines must be carefully considered here also, and the same consideration in regard to both mining and trucking should, the union contends, be just as favourably considered by the CourtFurthermore the Union's request to the Court to mako any agreement in reference to Liverpool Mine of short date 12 months at most, as it regards almost everything in connection with these mines to be in the experimental stage, and believe that hardships would very easily arise with an agreement covering » longer period. This would enable both management and the Union to have rights renewed, and would also enable the Court to make suitable provisions for any continegncy, alteration, or development that may arise. The Union wishes to conclude its presentation of the case by drawing the attention of the Court to tho outlandish situation of these mines, with no housing accommodation, the long distance men have to travel to work, some make a 12-hour day to be inadequate provision for living in the locality, and expects that the Court will carefully consider these important matters before striking rates and framing an agreement. Mr Coppersmith also asked the Court to fix a preference clause.

THE EVIDENCE. John ArbucUo said there was no chance in life of the men making 10s and 8s per day in No. 1 *nd No. 3 under the rates proposed by the management. He did not know of a colliery paying anywhere as low as 2s 2d per ton for solid rates—the rates proposed by the Department werf ridiculous.

In* reply to Mr Kimbell witness said lie had not worked in the Liverpool or Paparoa mines. To make up wages less than 12s up to ,18s might create difficulties to the management, but they were only asking the minimum for a short time. M. F. Griffen, miner at the Liverpool collieries, snid that compared with the Point Elizabeth mine the Liverpool coal was a woody, tough, dead coal, and a miner would not make more than 8s or Os per day on the rates proposed by tlu. management; and he would have to be a very good man to make 12s per day on tates proposed by the Union, which he considered also too low. Cutting in his bord took seven hours, and it would tako him nine hours to "hole" a bord 18ft by 3ft. He had met hard stones in holing. He contended men working at the top mine on day wages should be paid an extra is per day on account of the living con.litions at a high altitude, and the isolation and extra amount of wet weather, md tho fact that many men had to.travel a distance to their homes. • The general opinion of the Liverpool miners was that they would sooner be kept on at 12s per day than put on a tonnage rate of 2s Bd.

Charles Bradley Smith, 20 years' experience, at present working at the Liverpool mine, said he would have to work ixtrv-mely hard to make from 12s to 13s oer day under the Union's proposed rates, in regard to "cutting" it had been optional at other mines where he had worked; he was not doing "cutting" at Liverpool as he had been driving a heading. He considered the cutting made a greater proportion of slack coal. There were bands of stone in the Liverpool coai. Andrew" Ramage, 25 years' experience iii getting coal, in the main corroborated rhe evidence of the previous witnesses. He thought Is a ton extra for cutting as demanded, by the Union was hardly enough. Six shillings a yard was not too much to ask for when arching (roof) had to be done. Every place with two solid aides, he considered, should be paid for at solid rates. The men working outside •it the Liverpool, he thought, were entitled to the extra Is a day, and rone boys in extra 6d as claimed by the Union; neither should the blacksmiths, who are paid lis 4d, be reduced, but rather increased. He was one of the contractors at the Liverpool mine referred to in previous evidence, and in working his drive the size was less than specified in the contract; he had received permission to reduce the measurements; a similar statement was also made in regard to a second contract cited.

Joseph McQuilkin, miner, just left Paparoa mine, said he had worked his last 11 days in Paparoa without firing a shot, and his wages had been £lO for the 11 ohifts. The coal at Panaroa was woody and friable.

Hugh Lowther said there were fivt bands of stone in the place ho was working at the No. 1 mino (Liverpool), they were 2Mn, 2in, 10 l-3in, lOin, and hands.

Mr Bishop said the bands in the level referred to had no bearing on the ques(ion: it was a prospecting level, mid only employed, one pair of men. John Cohen, one of the contractors at the Liverpool mine, said in regard to a contract ho carried out in No. 1, there, was a trucker there who practically acted

sll the time as a third man to his p-irry, . which would reduce the averages previ- .. ously put into Court by the management, . Further evidence was adduced by the Union in suppoit of its counter claims; that 2d per ton extra where double shift was worked; that an extra shilling a ton for cutting coal be paid where cutting was enforced ; that an extra 6s per yard h.: paid where arching roof had to be done ; thai miners should not be asked to tru-k any coal; that outside laboui.sra should re- , cciVH an extra Bki'Hng w day; I'm'"Lack" Saturday sLould remain a short ■shift-. • !