THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, JULY 24, 1950 COAL—AND TEA

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 60, Issue 4308, 24 July 1950, Page 4

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette With which is Incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY “Public Service” MONDAY, JULY 24, 1950 COAL—AND TEA

New Zealanders are prepared to be astounded by the foibles of coal miners, but the comic opera scene at the Wallsend mine on the West Coast recently sets a new level in industrial fantasy. Following a “trial* of 40 of their members who did not attend a T.U.C. protest meeting the man who normally made the hot tea for the miners had to take his turn to be stood down for one day as No one else would make the tea that day ■so everybody, to a number of 120, came to the surface and &ent home. In such manner are, the coal stocks of the Dominion depleted and the dignity' of the miners satisfied. Only in an easy-going democracy could such things happen. . i The Communist States have very different ideas about the obligations of unionists, about hot tea, miners’ “trials,” strikes and stop-work meetings. And it is these Communist States that read with the greatest pleasure of unionist extravagances in the democracies such as was witnessed at Wallsend recently.