WEST COAST COALMINES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20898, 13 June 1931, Page 10

WEST COAST COALMINES.

MANY MEN NOT WORKING. TROUBLE OVER TRIBUTING. [BY TELEGRArH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.J GREYMOUTH, Friday. The position on the coalfields has undergone no alteration since the miners' stopwork meetings some time ago, when the question of strike action against the wages reduction was considered. While a score of the polico who were recently sent thero have returned to the North Island from the Charming Creek district where tribute mining has been introduced in opposition to the policy of the unions, many other police yet remain at Charming Creek. It is understood that coalminers on the coast have declared the Charming Creek mine "black," and also the Cascade mine, on account of tho introduction of the tribute system. The position at Blackball is that, the miners have been idle for months owing to a. dispute over conditions and the sharing of work. It is now reported that a party has been formed to work part of tne Blackball Coal Company's area on co-operative lines without the tribute system. The miners' national and local officials are yet to decide the attitude toward the project. At Millerton the miners have worked only 49 days during the past six months. This has resulted in distress so serious that the Government to-day was requested by Mr. 11. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, and the union, to send either relief or orders to restore working. Dobson mine is working only a single shift, tho men sharing the work, in spite of the Railway Department's statement that the mine is not coping with its orders. Tribute mining on the Briandale field resulted in it also being declared "black." The tribute system, under which all the output must 'bo sold to the mineowners at a fixed rate, is calculated, in the miners' opinion, to break down the' conditions of work obtaining and also to weaken the union.