MILLERTON NOTES

Grey River Argus, 21 November 1944, Page 6

MILLERTON NOTES

[Our Own Correspondent!

The recent dispute at the Millerton Mine might have disposed the public unfavourably towards the miners’ attitude, in view of the statement which the company officials circulated through the press. The statement was one likely to mislead people, not only outside but even within a miners’ union. A trucker in the mine boards with his parents here, whilst his father is employed a mile and threequarters away at the Stockton Mine. The former received his coal from Millerton Mine, but his supply for some reason was stopped, and at a mine mouth meeting the Millerton miners decided to support the claim of the trucker and stopped work. T’he trucker was not claiming home coal at the workers’ rate, being prepared to pay the outside rate charged the general public in Millerton and Granity townships. Now the Westport Coal Coy. was advertising its coal in the Westnort paper for sale to the public, and it was only, to be allowed to buy coal like any other member of the public that the trucker was asking, although he is employed in the industry. The distance to transport coal_for him from Millerton Mine was but a quarter of a mile, whereas from Stockton Mine it would have to be transported seven times that distance, or further, allowing for the return journey with an empty vehicle, fourteen times a quarter of a mile. The extra fuel and tyre consumption on the journey between Stockton and Millerton meant inefficient transport and was out o fcompliance with the needs of the war effort. Now Mine Creek section of the Millerton Mine was idled one day recently, nine pairs of colliers not producing, but there were no headlines in the newspapers in this l instance. The cause of the stoppage was that nearly six weeks previously a bar had fallen from the roof of the wet steep in the main tunnel, and no attempt to have it replaced was made by th e officials, although they as well as the miners were aware of the bad nature of the country. There could have been a replacement before the stone started to run, as the mine is not in production on back Saturdays, and one could definitely say ample labour would have been available for the job, which thus could have been done in a matter of hours, instead lai er requiring a number of shifts, with the consequent loss l of about a couple' of hundred tons of coal on the day the section was idle, and the loss also of the miners’ wages.