ATTITUDE OF MINERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 4

ATTITUDE OF MINERS

“TOO SILLY FOR WORDS” STRAIGHT TALK BY LICENSING AUTHORITY Grey mouth, Oct . 20 Inangahua coal and gold minors ran into some verbal 'straight lefts m an ( encounter with the No. 3 Transport Licensing Authority. Mr T. IL Lang Mold, during last week's sitting in (Greymouth. They were told that their altitude toward an operative was “too j silly for words” and that they had an "old woman's way of going on.” A statement that they would rather walk than ride with the licensed operative drew the retort that they could carry on walking as this would save valuable petrol. The discussion arose when the pas- , senger license of B. 1. (Nunmings, lkamatua, came up for reCew at the d, rection of the Minister of Transport. An allegation had been made that the licensee was failing to cater adequately for the needs of the district in relation to passenger transport under his license. The licensee said that he was adhering to his time-table. He had had requests to run at other times, when lie was not permitted to do so under his license. James McGregor, secretary of the Inangahua Coal and Gold Miners’. i Union gave evidence regarding a corn plaint by the union. He said that Cummings had made an agreement with the union to take miners from the Blackwater shaft to the north shaft, but he had not carried out that agreement. When the agreement was made i Cummings said he could not put the service on for a month, as he would i have to have the bus fixed, but in the ; meantime there was trouble at the' mine. The miners heard that Cum- ! mings would not put on the service for fear of a strike. The miners had since j discussed the matter, and had decided that they would not ride with Cum-! mings, and had approached Mr Wil ; liams to run a service. The chairman said that it was no good Williams entering into a contract | to give the service, as he had two vehicles subject to impressment. Mr McGregor: The men would rather walk than go with Cummings. The chairman: Well, if that is the case, then they had better carry on walking. It will save petrol, and that ( Is a big consideration. Mr McGregor repeated that the | union had unanimously decided that they would not ride with Cummings. | The chairman: This is too silly for : words. I just can’t be bothered with j this kind of talk. This man has a j good record as far as the department j is concerned. If we accept your atti- 1 tude we are going to put a blemish on i that record. It’s an old woman’s way j of going on. You fellow's can’t put yourselves up as the Licensing Authority and say who is going to do the ( job. It is the job of the authority to grant a licence if it is deemed neces- | sary in the public interest, and the j department’s inspectors see that it is j carried out. The chairman added that as far as j the review was concerned, the Minister; had been misinformed, for the license had been carried on in the terms in : which it had been granted. There was 1 no evidence to sustain the grounds for review.