NEWCASTLE COLLIERY CRISIS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6361, 8 November 1907, Page 5

NEWCASTLE COLLIERY CRISIS.

THE HEWING RATE STATEMENT OF WAGES EARNED BY MINERS.

By Telenraph—Press Association—Copyrtirbt (Eieoeived November 7/9.10 p.m.) SYDNEY, November 7. In connection witb the demand made by the miners for an increase of eightpence per ton in the hewing rate, in place of the fourponoo granted, the colliery proprietors have prepared a statement of wages earned at the principal collieries in the Newcastle and Maitland districts during the past six months. At twenty-one pits the daily wages ranged from 10s to 16a, averaging about 13s. One colliery ranged from 16s to 33s lOd. The increase of fourponce in the hewing rate would mean an additional Is 2d per day in the wages of each' man. By the closing of the Burwood and Lambton B pits over five hundred men have been rendered idle. The dispute regarding the hewing .rate nas been under review for a week or two past. A conference between the employers and the men failed to provide for a settlement, and "the general impression among minors on Friday last,” according -to the Newcastle correspondent of. the "Sydney Morning Herald,” "was that the men must make a stand on some point to combat what they consider to be the uncompromising and defiant attitude of the proprietors. It was said that, if the proprietors had made a concession even to one of the minor demands of the men, th© district officers of th© federation, who have to face the minors on the situation, would have a much easier task before them, as it is, they were deputed by the massed miners on October 26th to make certain direct demands of the proprietors, and they have to return to their ranks with a full list of rebuffs to those demands. In shipping circles also the position is regarded as very critical. A strike, it was said, would prove much more calamitous now than last year, when such a crisis threatened. The shipping trade is now much more brisk than at the close of last year’s conference, and the port and district would suffer more than at any time during its history from th© strike. The hope is still expressed that the situation may yet be saved.” Eegarding the Burwood and Lambton B yardage rates, about which a dispute exists, the demands made by the miners were that under the existing agreement the- manager had taken an unfair advantage of th© men in altering measurements connected with yardage work, and that a new agreement should be drawn up. The proprietors expressed their willingness to extend the dimensions of the crosscuts, etc., connected with the yardage rates, and stated that in conceding so much they removed the grievance of the miners. The miners' representatives. however, held that, the agreement being abrogated by the action of the men refusing to work in narrow places, a- new agreement should be drafted and signed. The proprietors refused to enter into another agreement, contending that the present one was still in force, having been signed both by th© proprietors' and miners representatives.