BRITISH MINING

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 June 1923, Page 5

BRITISH MINING

MINIMUM WAGE BILL. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) , LONDON, June 21. The House of Commons fully debated the position in the mining industry, which has been the subject of considerable agitation. The miners, with 44 M.’s P., forming the largest group of the Labour Paity, introduced a Minimum Wage Bill, pro viding a minimum wage 76 per cent, above the 1914 basis, with subsequent adjustments according to the cost of living, as shown by the official index figures. It was agreed that this would mean twelve and a-half millions. v Mr Adamson (Labour) suggested that the owners could make up this by better organisation of the industry and by' tho elimination of intermediate profits. The coal owners’ advocates replied that the Bill would mean unemployment and dearer coal. Mr Hartshorne (Labour) said this Bill would raise the wages of the twenty lower grades of workers in South Wales to only about 45/4 for a five-day week. With the present wage there was no hope of industrial peace. Sir P. Lloyd Graeme said the Bill

meant jettisoning the existing agreement, •which, was working well. The present wages were not the result of a faulty agreement, but were due to the economic conditions surrounding this and other industries. The Bill was rejected by 230 to 154 votes.