THE PUKEMIRO DISPUTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17597, 9 October 1920, Page 6

THE PUKEMIRO DISPUTE.

It is difficult to understand the interruption of negotiations for the settlement of the Pukemiro dispute. From the published correspondence it appears that the secretaries of the two federations agreed on Tuesday to refer the matter to the National Disputes Committee, the representatives of the employers making the condition that work should be resumed on Thursday morning-, the committee to meet that afternoon. It is not known when an intimation of Ihis arrangement reached the Miners' Union, but the Pukemiro iCompany certainly did not learn of it until Wednesday, so late in the day that it had to make special arrangements with the Railway Department to enable the manager, who was in Auckland, to reach the mine that afternoon. On his arrival he learned that instead of going to work on Thursday morning the miners intended to hold a meeting to consider the proposal from Wellington. At the most, the Miners' Union had less than two days' notice of their part in the provisional settlement, while the company,, being advised on Wednesday, considered it might not be able to prepare the mine for operations by the following morning. In view of these circumstances, the mineowners' executive seems to have been hardly just in deciding that the Pukemiro Union had "only been trifling with the matter," and needlessly abrupt in withdrawing its consent to a conference. A littld more patience would have cost nothing and might have enabled the Disputes Committee to meet yesterday and devise an acceptable formula for the resumption of work.