STATE MINE IDLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1920, Page 5

STATE MINE IDLE

SETTLEMENT PROSPECTS,

BY NO MEANS HOPEFUL,

MANAGER’S TELEGRAM

REGARDED AS A QUIBBLE,

After being out for ,a week there is every prospect that it will be about another six or seven days before the State' miners will be able to return. The position is that the miners were dissatisfied with the long time occupied in the train journey to, and from Rewanui, and with the fact that they had to pay higher rates for a weekly ticket than those charged to suburban workers for a longer distance. .their request for cheaper railway fares was doomed reasonable, and the authorities v’a need the concession asked for. The question of the earlier starting of the train in the morning and the earlier departure from the mine in the evening was therefore the only quert’on left in dispute. The representatives of the men met the Mine Manager and the Under-Secretary for Aline?, with a view to an amicable settlement of the'matter in dispute, and as a result a time-table was arranged, which proved satisfactory to the'men and the Railway Department. The revised time-table provided that the train should not leave for the mine before 6.55 a.m. and should not depart on the homeward journey later than 4.40 p.m. The men on the night-shift, it was pointed out, had no facilities whatever for getting home, and had to travel over four miles in all weathers. This point was satisfactorily settled by cutting out the shift. It was thought by all parties concerned that the end of the trouble was in sight and that the men would be able to resume work within a day or so of the uegof iaUoua,

Exception was taken in Wellington, however, to the departure of the train at 6.35 and obviously with the idea that starting at tins time and departing at the earlier hour of 4.40 would mean that the full eight hours could not be worked. It was contended that the time could be put

in easily. Mr I. A. Janies, general manager cf the State Mine, telegraphed that he would met the representatives of the men in Greymouth on Saturday evening, when the matter could be discussed, but the men, though expressing their willingness to meet Mr Janies, expressed their determination not to secede from the demand for the time-table as arranged between the management and the miners’ representatives. It was difficult, therefore, to see how a deadlock could be avoided. The Wahhie missed the connection on Saturday, with the result that Mr James was unable to reach here by the Our a express on Saturday, and .unless he came by motor car ho could not arrive bcfoie Tuesday night. He sent a telegram asking the men to return to work pending Ids arrival, and suggested that on Wednesday the miners’ representatives with the management and himself could walk from the top of the hoist to the tunnelmouth in order to ascertain the time necessary to allow the men tp travel the distance. The Union rejected the proposal to return to work, and contended that as the in hie managers and themselves had to walk the distance daily they knew already exactly how long it took to cover the distance. At a meeting of the men yesterday speakers pointed out that the suggestion was merely a quibble in order to justify the refection of a time-table that had met with the approval of all concerned. The prospects of work resuming at an early date arc not bright.