MINING FOR UNEMPLOYED?

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 10851, 17 March 1921, Page 4

MINING FOR UNEMPLOYED?

WELSH COAL £4 5s 6d A TON C.I.F. Would the Minister for Mines give facilities for men becoming qualified as miners? was a motion put to the Hon. G. J. Anderson in the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr A. R. Hamilton, member for Awarua. At the present time the men had to work for a certain time in a mine with qualified miners before they could qualify, and the miners would not work with them. We would soon have plenty of unemployed, and opportunity should be given for the men to qualify as miners as the Dominion was so abort of tbem. In the Waimea district alone there was coal enough to supply all the country’s requirements without us having to import coal at £6 to £7 a ton. Mr Anderson asked the hon. mem. ber to put the question on the Order Paper so that he could have it thoroughly considered. He hoped that the prognostication of the hon. member in regard to unemployment would not prove true ; but his suggestion seemed worthy of consideration. Mr H. E. HollatfH (Buller): We have plenty of miners now, but no homes for them. The Prime Minister said that the price of imported coal was not so high as Mr Hamilton had stated. Welsh coal was now delivered in New Zealand at £4 5s 6d per ton c.i.f. He would many thousand time, however, prefer that the coal should be produced here, though he was informed that at the- price stated the calorific value of Welsh coal compared very favourably iviui that el any coal imparted from New South Wales or produced here.