COAL CRISIS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 173, 23 June 1926, Page 9

COAL CRISIS

HOURS BILL POSTPONED. FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS POSSIBLE. DEVELOPMENTS AWAITED. (By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON,.J-Cuie 22. The Government’s decision to proceed wiMi the -Mines Reorganisation Bill before the Hours Bill,. which has been postponed for a week, is regarded in some quarters as a gesture to the miners and others indicating the possibility of negotiations on the basis of a week-end hint given by Mr Herbert Smith, president of the Miners Federation, tliat a slight wage reduction is preferable to longer hours. Developments are being awaited. In tne House of Commons Mr Baldwin declined to allow a free vote of the House on the question of the Russian money to aid the strike. He also stated that he had no reason to believe that compulsory arbitration would be found practicable in industrial disputes, though he was prepared to consider favourably any proposal designed to avoid the stoppage of work.—A. and N.Z. cable. MR COOK’S CHALLENGE. AN ELECTION DESIRED. LONDON, June 21. Mr A. J. Cook’s latest move is a challenge to Mr Baldwin to go to the country on the Eight-hour Bill. He is sure that he would find the public on the side of the miners. The Trades Union Congress .could reorganise Labour to fight as never before. He told Labour members tliat they must be carried dead from the House of Commons before a miner was carried, dead from the pits, as he would be if the Government proposals were accepted. —A. and N.Z. cable. TWO COAL BILLS. PROVISIONS MADE PUBLIC. Received June 23, 11.10 a.m. LONDON. June 22. The text of the coal bills have been published. Tho Hours Bill consists only of two clauses, and when enacted will continue in force for five years.

The Mining Industry Bill is a more elaborate measure of 17 clauses. It empowers the amalgamation of mineral undertakings, but the confirmation of any scheme where a section of the owners is unwilling to amalgamate rests with the Board of Trade. The bill empowers the Railway and Canal Commission to remove restrictions on the working or searching for minerals where it is satisfied that it is in the national interest, and provides for a levy of Is per annum for every 20s rental value, payable by every person liable to pay mineral rights or duty on the rental value of the right to work coal. The levy will be used for the miners’ welfare, particularly for the provision of baths at the coal mines. Finally, the bill provides that, in recruiting persons over 18 years of age lor employment in coal mines, preference shall be given to ex-miners. It also empowers coal mining companies to establish profit-sharing schemes.— Reuter.