MINING CONFERENCE

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 July 1932, Page 7

MINING CONFERENCE

A SPEEDY SUCCESS OWNERS AMEND PROPOSALS [PEE PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, July 8. An agreement was reached this afternoon in the Northern coal miners It was announced to-night that the proposals which the owners submitted at the conclusion of the Auckland conference, and which wore rejected by the men, were to-day reconsidered, and some substantial amendments were made in those proposals. The Union delegates will now take these recommendations back to their members, and, subject to their ratification, work will be resumed in the mines on Tuesday. ■ Neither side desires to give any details of the agreement, until the Waikato Miners’ Unions have considered them. The delegates left for their homes this evening.

The respective delegations were:— Owners. —Colonel W. D. Holgate (President of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association), the Hon. E. W. Alison and Mr F. M. Winstone (representing the Taupiri Company), Messrs H. R., Mackenzie and F. Brooke Taylor (Renown Company); Mr Leonard J. Stevens (Hikurangi Company); Messrs Dynes Fulton and C. M. Richwhite (Glen Afton Company), and Mr A. Howey Walker (Pukemiro Company). Men.—Messrs W. Davison (secretary of the Northern Miners’ Union); C. A. Lathan (secretary of the Hikurangi Miners’ Union), and T. Rougher (President of the Northern Miners’ Union).

MINISTER INTERVIEWED. WELLINGTON, July 8. “I was very pleased with the result of to-day’s coal conference,” said the Acting Minister of Labour, Mr Hamilton, when interviewed by a “Dominion” reporter this evening. “When negotiations broke down at the conference, held recently in Auckland, I viewed the position seriously, and, after consulting with the Government, I decided that, as the consequences might he far-reaching, .it was advisable to invite both parties to meet in conference in Wellington, to' make a final effort to reach a settlement. The Government was naturally grateful to both sides for accepting the invitation- and responding to it so readily.” Mr Hamilton, stated that a very pleasant spirit prevailed during the whole sitting of the conference. Proposals and counter-proposals were made by each side on several occasions during the day. Finality was reached at six o’clock, when it was announced that both sides were agreeable to accept final proposals. The miners /undertook to endeavour to persuade their members to accept the agreement, and the mine owners undertook to remove certain difficulties in the way with work to be resumed on Tuesday. The Minister added that before leaving, the delegates from both sides expressed appreciation of the Government’s action in calling the conference, and of the spirit in which each side had met the other.

The Minister said he trusted that, as a result of the conference, a better understanding would pevail, and that nothing would happen to prevent continuous and harmonious working of the mines in the northern district. He hoped also that the agreement arrived at would materially assist in obtaining satisfactory agreements in the other mining areas in New Zealand. It is agreed that the conference was one of the most unique. of its kind ever held in New Zealand. Probably never before has such a conference reached an agreement in so short a time, when ’such important proposals were at stake.

AT HUNTLY HAMILTON, July 8. The situation was quiet at Huntly to-day. The volunteer labourers at the Renown Mine were not molested. Grave dissatisfaction is being expressed by the miners at the decision taken to work the Renown mine while the conference has been in progress at Wellington. This the men regard as being a breach of what is tantamount to an armistice. Feeling is running high as a result. z PEACE WITH HONOUR. [special to “star.”] AUCKLAND, July 9. Non-union labour was working at the Renown mine, yesterday. Twenty men, two of whom were ex-miners, and the remainder relief workers, spent a busy day trucking out 300 skips, containing the coal which had been loaded by the deputies of mine officials in the ordinary course of their duties. It was the first coal to be taken out of the mine since the strike commenced five weeks ago. An additional four men recruited for work in the Renown mine reached Huntly last evening, but in view of information from Wellington it is not likely that they will be sent to the coalfield. Complete arrangements had been made by the Railways Department to rail coal amounting to 200 tons to Huntly, but delays occurred owing to the inexperience of the newly-engaged men, and no coal from the Renown mine was sent away yesterday. Work at the mine and the screening works, three miles away from Rotowaro, was carried out under police supervision. There was no attempt at interference, however. Groups of miners gathered to watch the nonunionists at work, but no comment was passed, and at the mine-head the strikers played football within a chain of where the free labourers were working. Outward appearances gave no indication of what was in progress.

VOLUNTEERS PAID OFF. AUCKLAND, July 9. The volunteer labourers engaged for the Renown Colliery have been paid off, and the proposal to work the Hikurangi mine by contract has been abandoned.