STATE MINES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18351, 8 March 1920, Page 7

STATE MINES.

MEN’S VOICE IN CONTROL. [From Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, March 6. The Government, during tho conference between the miners’ delegates and the coal owners, made an important offer to the State miners which has now been submitted in detail to tho State Miners’ Union for decision. It suggested that a Board of Management for the State mine should bo set up, consisting of the Minister of Mines, who shall be chairman, the Undersecretary of the Mines Department, with a commercial man to he appointed by the Government and’ a representative of tho miners, who shall be appointed by ballot every three years, tho elected member to receive two guineas per day when he is absent from work on the business of the board, which shall meet monthly. Tho Government’s scheme indicates that the proposed Board of Management, if constituted, should be asked to arrange as quickly as possible for the erection of a sufficient number of houses for the accommodation of tho miners and their families, these dwellings to bo rented, leased or sold to the men. It is also proposed by the Government that a scheme should Ire formulated to provide the State miners with superannuation and insurance against loss from sickness or unemployment.