Manawatu Daily Time March of the Miners

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6844, 25 February 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Daily Time March of the Miners

rpjiosE pitiful little companies of miners—of hoary, hackscarred veterans of the pit, men who should he in the prime of life and striplings but lately from school, now converging on London from S. Wales, Newcastle, Scotland and the West of England—what do they hope to achieve ? They represent the unquenchable hope that from time immemorial has been expressed in pilgrimages to petition Caesar. They hope, when the remnants of their ranks arrive in London, to sec Mr. Baldwin, who will, it is hoped, give them at least encouragement to take back with them to their villages. It is generally admitted that if the British coal trade is to recover prosperity, there must be a closing of uneconomic pits and a concentration of production in the more efficient units, which arc themselves able to raise unassisted the 250,000,000 tons ox coal required to satisfy the annual demands of the market. The closing of some of the pits would certainly reduce the number of workers, but this would be more than compensated for by the lengthening of the working week of those leR in it; and it is obviously better to have a smaller number cf men working five or six days a week than to have, as at present, a larger number than the industry can curry, working only three or four. In the one case the industry and the workers in it are efficient and prosperous, while the other offers no cause for satisfaction anywhere. Economic competition and increasing ovei’hcacl charges are every day compelling more and more pits to close. Within the last three months or so two powerful companies, owning a dozen pits in South Wales, have gone into liquidation, the poorer mines cannot possibly, in any case, keep open much longer; nor is it desirable that they should, for they lower wage rates by diminishing net proceeds. The choice is between closing them haphazard and piecemeal, or on a plan calculated to restore the industry to vigour and prosperity. It is to be hoped that the conferences on the reorganisation of the industry will lead to the adoption of the latter policy. In such an event there naturally arises the question of what is to be done with the surplus miners, who would, it is estimated, number 200,000. The experience of Germany suggests that the shutting of uneconomic pits would have so stimulating an effect upon the heavy industries as to make it possible for these ultimately to absorb a large pi-oportion of the surplus coal workers. The continuance of the Government scheme for drafting unemployed miners into other trades is of obvious value in this connection; and the number of entrants into the industry might well be severely restricted.

Members of the Sth Artillery Territorial Battery, about 100 strong, left Palmerston North on Saturday for Waipukurau, where they are to spend a week under canvas, undergoing their annual camp training. The 7th Battery who have been in camp, returned homo to Palmerston North on Saturday. Times” gets action the samo dar.

The Palmerston North lire brigade was called to suppress an outbreak in a shed at No. 6 Bright water Terrace last evening. The damage is estimated bv Mr. Armstrong, who occupied the premises, at £3O. The contents consisted of timber and the cause of the fire unknown, Mr Armtrong being away all day at Fox ton.