NO AGREEMENT YET

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12434, 30 April 1926, Page 7

NO AGREEMENT YET

NEGOTIATORS IN COAL DISPUTE EXHAUSTED

MORE TIME MAY BE GRANTED

MINERS PRESSING FOR REORGANISATION OF INDUSTRY

Although the present agreement governing the wages of the British coalminers expires at midnight to-night, it is probable that it will he slightly extended, if there is hope of the parties agreeing. The miners say that the most serious malady of the coal industry is defective organisation.

By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. Australian tuul N.& Association (Received April 29, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 29. . Tho coal negotiations had reached the following stage at midnight, when the conference was adjourned, Mr Baldwin and all the parties being tired and exhausted : —■ The owners concede a national, instead of a district, agreement and minimum, and they are prepared to face the retention 6f the seven-hour day. The miners forced the question, of the reconstruction of the industry to the forefront. The future assets are being exhaustively analysed by all parties, with a view to basing new wage rates on them, the miners arguing that if the industry were overhauled forthwith, in accordance w'ith the Coal Commission’s report, a drastic revision of the rates of pay or the hours of work would he unnaeessarj. Moreover, such a revision should be

further eased by the promised Government assistance. The “Daily Express” states that instructions suspending the notices, which expire on Friday at midnight, are ready for issue if the conversations proceed satisfactorily to-day, in which case the subsidy would be continued for a week or two. Officials of tho Mines Department are of opinion that the men will continue to work while the final details are being threshed out. * Tho “Daily Herald” says the miners told Mr Baldwin that, so long as private enterprise was maintained, the obligation to find the money for an adequate wage rested with the own. ers. “I have put my ace on the table. You put yours,” said Mr Herbert Smith, president of the Miners’ Federation. The miners argue that it is the defective organisation of the industry, . for which, they are not responsible, which has rendered it unable to cope with the existing world crisis. The newspapers in closest touch; with the owners still regard the situation pessimistically*