WAIKATO COAL MINES

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 November 1940, Page 3

WAIKATO COAL MINES

MR. WEBB’S STATEMENT. [per press association.] WELLINGTON, November 27. Criticism of statements to the Hamilton Manpower Committee on condiJtions of work in Waikato coal mine; [as “of a mischievous character, which can only tend to foment disconten among the coalminers in this country,” was made by the Minister foi Mines (Mr. Webb) to-day in the House of Representatives. He was asked ar urgent question by .Mr. C. A. Barrell (Government/ Hamilton). Mr. Webt said he very much regretted the undue publicity given to the statements. “The emancipation of the coalminer is a very long story,” said Mr. Webb, “and those people who have followed the subject intelligently, realise that many of the problems now confronting the industry could not be surmounted in any spectacular manner, due to some extent to psychological considerations.” Referring to the claim that all miners in the Waikato were not working a full eight-hour shift, bank to bank, Mr. Webb said he felt that to no small degree the managers themselves were to blame. He understood that the Coal Mines Council had taken up with the colliery managers in the Waikato the question of an improvement in bathhouse accommodation. It was entirely unfair to attribute the whole increase in the cost of trucking to the quantum of work done by the trucker. In very many cases the cost of trucking was greatly influenced by the lay-out of the mines. There had been, of course, a very rapid increase in consumption by industries, and the only problem that he knew of at the moment was to ensure an adequate supply of coal next year for the steamgenerated electric plant at Auckland. “This is being examined by the Department at the present time,” Mr. Webb said, “but no person who is desirous of being fair could possibly suggest that/coalminers are to be blamed if the Public Works Department suddenly announces that a great increase in slack coal is wanted next year, owing to its inability to secure equipment from overseas for the extension of hydro-electric plants. The consump-tion-of slack by dairy factories and freezing works is at its peak when th’e household trade in large coal has diminished. As Waikato coal is liable to spontaneous combustion, there is a limit to the amount which can be stored economically.”