MINING INDUSTRY

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 24 March 1928, Page 5

MINING INDUSTRY

THE EIGHT HOURS’ ACT

ITS REPEAL SOUGHT.

MEMBERS DISCUSS CONDITIONS

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

Received 10.45 a.m., to-day. LONDON, March 23. In the House of Commons, private mebmers’ day was devoted- t-o Lalxnirite Mr. Greenail’s Coal Mines Bill, for the repeal of the eight hours Act 1926.

He contended that the R-t. Hon. Stanley Baldwin had reduced the miners’ standard of life below that of pre-war, yet lie had not brought the promised prosperity in the industry. Mr. Lloyd * George attacked the Government’s handling of the coal stoppage and declared that the Eight Hours Act was costing ten million yearly in unemployment pay, as well as ten to twenty million through reduced price of coal. Captain King, replying, said that many of the coal industries’ ills were due' to Air. Llyod George’s methods of giving way to the miners in every dispute. The Eight Hours Act reduced the cost of production hv 2s 6d per ton and enabled many mines to keep going, which otherwise would have had' to close, owing to foreign cornice tit ion. The Bill was rejected hv 154 to 127. —A.P.A. and “Sun.”