KAMO MINE IDLE

Greymouth Evening Star, 31 July 1946, Page 10

KAMO MINE IDLE

SEQUEL TO PROSECUTION OF DEPUTY INSPECTION DEMANDED (P.A.) WI-lANGAREI, July 30. A Magistrate yesterday fined Robert Blythe Tait, an examining deputy at the Kamo mine, £5/1/- on a charge to which he had pleaded not guilty, of having failed to report that a source of danger existed in a working place due to inadequate timbering. It was not alleged that this breach had anything to do with the recent fatal accident, when a miner was killed by a fall of rock. Security for appeal against the Magistrate’s decision was fixed at £lO. This morning the mine was made idle because six deputies and the underviewer • refused to go down the mine until an inspector of mines, Mr. C. Hunter, carried out an inspection of the mine and made a report. The miners also refused to go down the mine, being not allowed by the rules to do so in the absence of the deputies and underviewer. Mr. Hunter was in the mine all day, and on his report will depend whether work in the mine is resumed. The output of the Kamo mine has been 200 tons daily. The loss of this will be serious to industry in the north if agreement is not reached soon. The main sufferers will be the Portland Cement Company and the Railways Department, each of which received 80 tons a day from the colliery. Other concerns receiving regular supplies, from the mine are the Moerewa freezing works, the Whangarei, Maungatapere, Whangaroa, and Tehana dairy factories, and some pri-vately-owned essential industries.

There are 120 men at the colliery. All, with the exception of two pumpmen and four blacksmiths, are idle. This means a daily loss of wages amounting to approximately £l7O,