MINE STOPPAGE IMMINENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12204, 31 July 1925, Page 7

MINE STOPPAGE IMMINENT

NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE, BUT OUTLOOK IS BLACK

MEN INSIST ON LIVING WAGE i - TRANSPORT UNIONS WILL REFUSE TO HANDLE COAL Long negotiations between the parties to the coal dispute have been without result, and unless a settlement is reached at the' last moment all the min es in Britain will be idle to-mor-row. In the event of a stopp age, the transport anions will refuse' to handle coal. *

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. ■ Australian and N.Z. Gable Association. , LONDON, July 29. There was much activity in Downing Street early to-day; this is the crucial stag© in the coal dispute. Mr Baldwin, who conferred with the coal-owners for two hours yesterday, after a prolonged Cabinet meeting, met tha miners’ representatives in the morning, and later conferred with the coal-owners again, preparatory to a joint meeting of the two sides at the Ministry of Labour. (Received July 30, 7.30 p.m.) Mr Baldwin conducted continuous negotiations all day long, first with the miners and then with the owners, passing from one room to the other as the possibility of finding a basis for a settlement was revealed. It is feared that little headway has been made, though thus far no details of the negotiations have leaked but of the conference rooms. No joint conference between masters ana men is yet possible. Mn Baldwin is deferring the production of his trump card, in the shape of-the offer of a loan to tha coal industry to cover its losses during the negotiations, as long as possible, as a section of the Cabinet strongly opposes such a subsidy. The latest report annonnees that at '6 o’clock two attendants left the Ministry for Labour and returned with a plentiful supply of bottles of Scotch whisky and siphons of soda. The .report adds: “The position is considered more hopeful.”

ONE OFFER REFUSED . Banter’s Tplegram. It transpires that the miners'refused the offer extended by the owners in toe afternoon to guarantee minimum "wage rates for each district on. a ] percentage bads, on the ground, that they-Were pledged to refuse to agree to any proposal involving' the lowering of wages in any district. ; 1 The special committee of the. Trades Union" Congress jointly participated with the miners to-night in the discussions with Mr Baldwin. The discussions subsequently Were adjourned until tomorrow. ' ~ -

"NO GLEAM OF HOPE" Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Received July 30, 8.45 p.m.) , DUNDON, July 30. “There is no gleam of hope,” said Mr A. J. Cook, secretary of the Miners’ Federation, late i last night, in summing up tbe TTay’s negotiations. The whole Press agrees that toe outlook is very black. The only canse for satisfaction is that negotiations Have not actually been broken off. Mr Baldwin again will meet the miners this morning, and toe owners later. A great conference of 'trade union executives meets during the afternoon. The transporters and railwaymen already have been instructed how to act in the event of a stoppage of toe mines. The “Daily Herald” says no coal win be moved or admitted to the country. . There Is activity also in Government circles in connection with emergency measures. Tho official communication ahows that the owners, in offering to accept the principle of a minimum wage, stressed the point that the industry showed-* a loss of two shillings per ton on the average in June, while somo districts showed a loss of nearly four shillings. It . was pointed out that in these circumstances any national minimum “must bo very low, and less favourable than the minimum percentages, paid district by district.” The miners; in reply, commented on present low wages and toe high cost of living, and affirmed that they were not prepared to accept the dictum that the industry can only be operated by paying wages insufficient; to support toe bare necessities of life, e < OWNERS RESENT COURTS REPORT . Tbe central Committee of the Mining Association of Great Britain unanimously decided strongly to protest against toe findings of the Court of Inquiry, .alleging that the report gives an incomplete, even distorted, view of the case of toe association, and.pointing out that the. report is hotaccept. ®bu> to the association as an exposition cf toe facts or as proper deductions from the evidence.