GOOD FIRST WEEK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21605, 6 January 1945, Page 4

GOOD FIRST WEEK

■ j. I AUSTRALIAN MINES SMALL ABSENTEE LOSS TWO N.S.wTmINES IDLE (Special Correspondent..) (9 a.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. (I. The coal position for the first working week of 1941) is considerably better than for the corresponding period last year. Losses through stoppages in New South Wales this week have totalled 20,000 tons, compared with 70,000 tons in the first working week last year. To-day only two mines were idle, for a coal loss of 2000 tons. On the corresponding day last year the loss was seven limes greater: The commission of inquiry into the Australian coal industry will commence investigations this month. The miners’ central council is now meeting to consider the submissions to be placed before the commission. Ways of increasing production, preventing stoppages and absenteeism will also be discussed. Commenting on the British report that more coal strikes had been experienced in 1944 than in any other year of the war, a colliery official in Sydney asid: “The losses in Britain represented t.l shift per man in 1943. and M. 4 shifts per man in 1944. In Australia, in 1943 miners lost more than 14 shifts per man. The 1944 figures, which have not been published, are worse than 1943.”