COAL INDUSTRY

Grey River Argus, 15 August 1945, Page 8

COAL INDUSTRY

N.Z. PRODUCTION Hon. A. McLagan’ Review WELLINGTON, August. 14. Hon. A. McLagan, Minister of Manpower, speaking in the Legislative Council during the Address-in-Reply debate stated:— I desire to say a few words in connection with what has become a burning subject—that is, the production of coal in New Zealand, and the performance of coal-miners during wartime. This matter was touched upon by the Hon. Mr. Grounds, the Hon. Mr. Mclntyre and the Hon. Mr. Davis, and by other gentlemen outside. The Hon. Mr. Grounds asked the reason for the reduction in output of coal and was rather surprised when informed that there had been no reduction, but an increase. The Hon. Mr. Mclntyre mentioned the allegation that the miners were going slow and said that miners in his district were not going slow. He believed that that had not been the case elsewhere, and he mentioned the existence of an alleged darg in Southland. That was one question in regard to which the Hon. Mr. Mclntyre admitted that he did not know anything, and he suggested that it might be a limitation of production to 10 tons per day. The Hon. Mr. Bloodworth: What exactly is a darg? The Hon. Mr. McLagan: A darg is a day’s work. That is the traditional meaning of the word. When you have “done your darg’’, you have done your day’s work. The meaning of the expression, as far as a miner is concerned. is that he has done what he considers to be a fair day’s work, and that he will not do more. It means that there is a limit and that has done a fair day’s work, and nothing more, instead of speeding himself up and doing two day’s work in one, as some very often do. The limitation of production to 10 tons per man is just a target. That is not a darg, but a target to be aimed at, but seldom attained in the average places in a mine.

The Hon. Mr. Mclntyre did not realise that the allegations he was repeating about miners in other districts, are being made in exactly the same way against the miners in his district where he is convinced, from his own observations, that the men are doing a wonderful job. They are; and they are doing just as good a job in the other districts, too, but they are all being accused of going slow. The Hon. Mr. Davis mentioned alleged go-slow tactics, absenteeism, stoppages, and so on. The Hon. Mr. Doyle made reference to this question, and said that the critics—the members of the Chambers of Commerce, and so on —might be taken along to the mines and given an opportunity to try the work. I would remind the Hon. Mr. Doyle of the very old and very true proverb, “One man can lead a horse to the water, but twenty cannot make him drink.” We might lead all the members of the Chambers of Commerce to the mine, but I doubt anybody’s ability to get them to swing a pick and shovel. Now, it has been asked what ulterior motive these men in the mines have for going slow, for refusing to produce. What plan are thev aiming at? Well, I suggest that if we find out what they are really doing we may know just what they have in mind and what they are aiming at. A gentleman' outside is reported in the “Evening riPoStY of July 19, as having said that heCfelt there was a sinister influence -'At work in coal-mining, and that it wasU Serious reflection on the capacity of the Government to handle the affairs of State. A sinister influence! There is, indeed, a sinister influence at work in coal-mining, and I proppose to give an instance of it now. There is published in New Zealand a journal know as “Freedom”, and in its issue of September 1, 1944, it publishes a half-page article, headed “Stop WorkTactics.” “Coal Company’s Now, we shall see tlfe sinister influence. The article reads:— “In the House, on July 27, the Leader of- the OppoSitidn, Mr. S. G. Holland, quoted a circular issued by Glen Afton Collieries Ltd., explaining to its customers the reason for its inability to keep abreast of orders for coal. The full text of this circular is given below, and it should be of interest to every person in the community who has been affected by the shortage of coal. “Glen Afton Collieries Ltd., Auckland. 12th July, 1944. Dear Sir (s),—Recently we have been inundated with complaints and urgent iappeal.s for more generous deliveries of'all grades of coal. Many of our clients' feel that compared with deliveries. from other ..collieries, we are - -neglecting-' to ’’ distribute To .them a.fair share of- our output. This 'circular is to inform you that short supplies are due only to reduction in output caused by frequent and unnecessary stopwork meetings and idle days at our two collieries.” ' It goes on—“ Our employees are entitled to hold one stop-work meeting of two hours’ duration monthly. The following list of 31 stoppages will indicate the extent to which our ability to supply your orders has been affected.” Then it gives the list. But the first statement is, that the miners are entitled to hold one stop-work meeting monthly. Well, I have here the Miners’. Agreement for the Waikato District, clause 39 of which deals with'stop-work meetings. This is the agreement between the two parties:— “Each branch of the Union shall be permitted' to hold one stop-work meeting in every calendar month for which purpose the mine shall knock off two hours early on a day to be previously arranged between the Union and 'the management. Any stop-work meeting held not in accordance with this provision shall be a breach of this agreement, except in case of an emergency arising which requires a special meeting. Such special meeting may be held if mutually arranged with the manager not less than 24 hours before the meeting is required to be held, and only one such emergency meeting in addition to the regular monthly meeting shall be permitted in any one month.” In other words, there is an agreement for two stop-work meetings a month, but this lying circular says that only one a month is allowed; and the people who sent out the circular are parties to this agreement, and know the position perfectly well. Let me give a list of these strikes and stop-work meetings. , Number one is, May 1 (Glen Mine (Glen Afton), idle all day, men refuse to work on May 1. Let me read the holidays clause in this agreement between the Glen Afton Collieries and the Miners. Clause 24, paragraph (a) reads:—“The folloving shall be recognised as holidays . . . Ngaruawahia Regatta Day. Good Friday, Easter Saturday, following Easter Monday, May 1. King’s Birthday. Labour Day, and from December 24'to January 4. both days inclusive.” May 1 is a holiday, and in this circular, it is set down as a strike; yet it is a holiday to which both parties have agreed. That is item number one in the list of strikes quoted in the circular. Item number two is, May 1, McDonald Mine idle all dav. men refuse to work on May 1. That is an agreed-upon holiday. So items one and two are both lies. Then take item number ten: McDonald Mine

idle all day, funeral of fellow employee; item number eleven, Glen Afton Mine, idle all day, funeral of fellow employee. Now, let me read the agreement . in regard to fatal accidents. Clause 31 reads:—“ln the event of any fatal accident occurring in or about the mine it shall be lawful for the workers in the mine in which the fatality occurs to cease work for the remainder of the day on which the said accident occurs: Provided it shall be lawful for all the company’s workers to cease work for one full day for the purpose of attending the funeral of the deceased worker, but not further or otherwise.” The owners agree that the workers shall cease work ofT'the day of the funeral of a man killed in the mine. Yet in their circular they call it a strike, and it goes over the air to all the people of New Zealand that these men are on strike on what is an agreement day off. Could anything be more shameful? Hon. members might think not. But I will indicate something still more shameful in this circular. Item No. 21, June 26, Glen Afton Mine, idle all day; check inspectors looking at fire in mine. Item No. 22, Glen Afton Mine, stop-work meeting 2 hours 45 minutes; reporting on yesterday’s inspection of the fire in the mine. Item No. 25, Glen Afton Mine, idle all day; fire discovered in mine. Item No. *27, Glen Afton Mine, idle all day; fire in mine. Now, the men do not go to work because there is a fire in the mine, but this lying' circular says they are on strike. What is a fire in a coalmine? There is nothing the miner, and with very good reason, dreads more than an underground fire in the coal-mine. Let me tell hon. members what has already occurred in this Glen Afton mine when fire broke out. It was in 1939, just after the outbreak of. war. Eleven men went into the mine to deal with the fii*j, and those eleven men died because of that fire —every one of them. And the Glen Afton Collieries, which say those miners are on strike when they are not at work when a fire is raging underground, had to pay heavy damages to the dependants of the men, because the company was proved to be negligent in its conduct of the mine. It had not taken the ordinary, everyday safety precautions in the interests of the safety of the men who lost their lives. And the people who run the Glen Afton Collieries had the audacity to say "that those men who will not throw their lives away by carrying on the ordinary operation during a fire, are on strike. Is that a sinister influence in coal-mining? There are some other interesting items. On J’une 29, the Glen Afton mine stopped for two hours. Why? Failure of the electric power supply. That is called a strike! There was no power to get the fans running as required by the law of the country before any one can go into a mine. The men did not go in until the power was restored, but that incident is down in the list of strikes and stop-work meetings. On the same day, the McDonald mine stopped for exactly the same reason. Both mines are on the -same supply line. That, too, was described as a stop-work meeting! Now to deal with these thirty-one awful crimes committed by these, miners! Two of the days were agreement holidays. Two others were lost because of the funeral of a workmate killed in the mine, and these days off were agreed upon with the mine owners. Four of the days were lost because of a fire in the Glen Afton mine. Two of the occasions were due to power failure, and on four other occasions the miners were discussing the existence of fire-stink in the McDonald mine, yet these were called stop-work meetings. The miner always takes notice of this firestink underground. It shows that a fire is just about to break out, and it occurs just when the heating has got to such a stage that the place is about to break out in fire. 7 Every experienced miner knows it- and dreads it. On four occasions the men held meetings to discuss this firestink. The facts are that on twenty of these thirty-one occasions the men had legitimate reasons for not being in the mine, and in fact would have been breaking the law on some occasions had they gone into the mine. Then again, we have to think of those two stop-work meetings they are entitled to per month. On some of these occasions, they held those stop-work meetings to discuss a request that they should work back on “back” Saturdays. These meetings are entitled to be held under the agreement to discuss Union business. They cannot discuss it at any other time because they live all over the place, yet the mine owners used . these occasions that they had agreed Upon to ly a sinister influence operating in slander the miners. There is certain-coal-mining, and there it is. There are occasions when the miners may depend upon sympathy, and they get it—crocodile tears, that is if a man loses his life, and his death can' bet used as an occasion for propaganda against the Government. Let me quote an occasion to prove this, otherwise hon. members might think it a far-fetched statement. It is. from a newspaper report that was extensively published. Headed “Fatality at Mine” it says:— “Mr. , 31, a married man, with 4 children, was killed yesterday in the Tatu State coal mine at Ohura when a rake of loaded trucks became derailed.” Then, after the report of the fatal accident, there are these words:- —“Mr. was directed by the manpower authorities to the mine two years ag°-” What is the obvious inference in this? The manpower authorities brought about his death! To their credit, the Wellington newspapers did not publish that part, only the notification of the accident, but the final paragraph was published by twenty newspapers throughout New Zealand. I have the list here. I have an interest in what is being published about the manpower administration. I keep my eye on these things, and in this case immediately called for a report from my Department. It advised that the man was not directed to the mine, but went there voluntarily. I then sent out a correction calling attention to the inaccuracy of the published report, and I added this: — “The man had not been directed to the mine but obtained employment of his own accord and had in fact, expressly asked to be released from his previous position to enable him to accept this work. I desire to make the correction not only because the report was inaccurate, but more particularly because of the inference it contained that but for the manpower direction the man would not have lost his life. It is regrettable that such a report should have been made without prior verification of the facts.” Of the twenty newspapers I have referred to that published the report, only thirteen published my correction. Seven refused to publish it in any shape or form. Of the thirteen which published the correction, .at least two —there may have been more, added this:—“Mr. McLagan’s comment that this report was erroneous insofar as the manpowering of deceased was concerned is apparenly a question of the word of the Minister against that of a witness at the inquest. This witness stated in sworn evidence that deceased worked at. the mine for the past two years and was manpowered there. It is regrettable that the Minister should have suggested that the Press report inferred that “but for the manpower direction the man would not have lost h's life.” The Press did nothing of the kind. It merely reported the evidence given at the

inquest.” So they tried to make a question of my word against that of a witness at the inquest. It was .nothing of- the kind. It was a question of an inac? curate statement against the facts’. Here/ is the subsequent statement by the. same witness:—- , “Deceased’s frother-in-law said impressions at the mine werel that deceased • had been manpowered, but if the department said he was no directed but went ori his own free will he would not dispute” it.” Hon. members will see this by now, when an inaccurate statement gets out, and an attempt is made to follow it up with the truth, the truth lags behind. In this case, when the miner was dead, they were dropping crocodile tears over his grave, and at the same time, getting in a kick at the the Government. While a miner is alive, he- is one of those people who are alleged to be going slow or striking, and keeping the country short of coal, for some sinister motive. What have the miners really been doing? I have the figures, but the reply may be that these only figures. I have told some of the people who have said that, that if they had to produce those tons of coal, they would realise that they are not figures, but something that has got to be produced by the expenditure of sweat and blood, not something, written down with a pen or a pencil. In 1939, there were 4,762 miners, and they produced 2.342,639 tons of coal. In 1940, they did a bit better, and produced 2,516,099 tons of coal, an increase of 173,460 tons. Of course, there were a few more miners—--5,046, an increase of 280. In 1941 they did better still. They produced 2,639,507 tons, an increase of 123,408 tons. This year there were a few less miners, instead of more, although they managed that extra 123,408 tons. In 1942 it was better still. They produced 2,680,041 tons. The increase then was 40,534 tons on the year before, and there were six more miners in that year who took a hand in producing the extra 40,000 tons. In 1943 they did remarkably well. They produced 2,787,866 tons of coal, an increase on the previous year of 107,827 tons. Of course, there were more miners that year—there were 377 more. They did a nice effort in getting out that extra 107,827 tons—the largest quantity every produced in New Zealand up to that time. Now the people who have no good word for the miners will say, “Yes, but did it not come from the open-cast mines?" The answer to that is that' up till the end of 1943 not one single ton of coal included in those figures had come from open-cast mines—not one single ton until 1944. Nobodv can that the open-cast mines did it. 1n'1944 rhe miners boosted the output ut; a little further. In that year 2,805,970 tons were produced, an increase of 18,102. That was not quite as big an increase as before, but I would, suggest that men can go on increasing and increasing to a certain pitch,-but they cannot, like machines that are speeded up, go on increasing permanently. You reach the limit of human endurance sooner or later. Now the overall result was this: in that period, in the six war years, annual production was increased bv 463,331 tons. Isthat a sinister plan?