THE STATE MINERS.

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1928, Page 8

THE STATE MINERS.

(To .the Editor). Sir, —Is it possible to expand the State- Mines trade so that they can sell all the coal produced without closing the mines periodically? There is no reason that I can see why our trade should be in the condition that it is. There is perhaps one reason, and that is the inability of the heads of the Railway Department to make progress, as .they know absolute l )- nothing about the economic values of the coal, or the trade it creates; but the State Mine employees with their families have to suffer all the time. The question of unemployment overshadows all the other problems in our industry. The interests at stake are vital and it is the urgent business of all to help to solve this question. In this article it is my intention to place before the State Miners the system Gf working on a co operative basis. After due consideration and study, 1 have found it a fair deal. It is. in fact, the co-operation of Labour with capita 1 , and as the State miners are part owners of the mines, with the rest of the population of New Zealand,, the proposition, in my opinion, should be carefully studied by all, as it might increase the u°e of our coal by the railways. About- three and a half years ago the Mines Department, through Mr James, the Superintendent of the State Mines, put this proposition before me, and he mentioned the names of two other miners capable of taking this subject up, to try and arrange, if possible, ,to work the State Mines on a co-operative system The way Mr James put it, I must say, was ■ very fair, but as it happened, the two | miners whose names he mentioned, were on the point of leaving the district and have since left. Since then I have made a careful study of the proposition, and I ask the miners as a body, to argue this principle out. I have various reasons and good arguments for introducing this subject to the employees of the State Mines, which I will state. The State mines reserves, which are pegged out, cover an area of 18,009 acres, but on the fringes and edges of .this land, leases are being taken up for the extraction of coal, in many instances by complete strangers to the district, and they are actually selling the coal to the Railway Department. The coal that they produce is of the same class and also of the same calorific va’ue as th? State miners produce, only, in many instances it is divided by a fault, or dis turbance in the strata. Now this system is detrimental, no,t only to the State Mines, which should be kept going, but to the employees who number about 400, and who, with their families have to suffer. I have made careful calculations during the last few months and I find that .the Railway Department have bought enough coal from these different parties to have given constant employment to at least eighty men at the State Mines, where .the orders should have been placed in the first instance. This question of cooperation should be discussed in the friendly spirit it is entitled to, and ii thp decision were in its favour, the Board of Control, which would oi course eventuate, viz., the workers’ re presentatives, with the State repre sentatives, might bp able to bring pres sure to bear on the railway authorities to use our coal instead of importing it The Greymouth, bar in i.ts preseni condition would make no difference as all the coal we produce would no' supply the railways in the South Island and it would, of course, go through th< Otira Tunnel. Perhaps some of th< leaders in union affairs may object t< this principle, saying that it would in terfere wi.th unionism. T can honestb say that unitv will he there all th: time, just the same as it always ha: been. —T am, etc., REW A NUT.