AUSTRALIAN COAL SUPPLY BELOW REQUIREMENTS

Grey River Argus, 5 November 1949, Page 8

AUSTRALIAN COAL SUPPLY BELOW REQUIREMENTS

SYDNEY, November 4 Union officials are certain that the Australian miner's will take their full annual holidays of three week's, regardless of the coal stocks in hanC. The Joint Coal Board is still awaiting a reply to its request that the miners should consider shortening their holidays because of the perilous state of the coal reserves. If the men refuse to cut Their holidays, rationing of coal to industry is expected immediately. This year the northern New South Wales miners will begin their holidays on December 1 16, and the southern and western miners a week later. A spokesman for the Joint Coal Board said that if coal production and consumption remained at the present levels, industry would have a reserve of 511,000 tons when the holidays began. The normal consumption was about 200,000 tons a week. The chairman of the Central Coal Reference Board (Mr. F. H. Gallagher) has abolished as from Sunday the working of a. third shift each day at the Muswellbrook open-cut colliery. After the general coal strike, the Joint CoaT Board ordered this shift which is from 11 p.m. >o 7 a.m., : n the interests of production. A five-day protest strike was held about a fortnight ago, and the Federated Enginedrivers’ and Firemen’s Association applied to Mr. Gallagher for the abolition of the third shift. Mr. Gallagher said he was satisfied that although three shifts a day were desirable in open cut mines, the conditions required for working these shifts did not at present exist at Muswellbrook.