THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, JULY 24, 1918. THE COAL-MINING SITUATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17375, 24 July 1918, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES WEDNESDAY, J ULY 24, 1918. THE COAL-MINING SITUATION.

The telegraphed summary, which we published on Monday morning, of a statement issued by the Coal Miners' Federation with reference to its claim for an increase of 20 per cent, in the present rate of pay of miners supplied only the barest outline of the nature of that document. Dbx> statement is of considerable length and of much interest. It would, however, be flattering to its authors to suggest that it offers any support to the claim which the federation has put forward. The only question at issue at the present time, the Federation says, is one of a readjustment of wages. This readjustment, it declares, has been made imperative owing to the increased cost of living. The increase in the cost of living, on the basis of the principal food groups, is put down at 39.6 per cent., against which an increase of 17.5 per cent, in wages has been received by the miners. It may incidentally be observed that the increase in the cost of living as a whole is less than the increase in the food groups, so that the Federation has selected, for the purposes of comparison, the figures that are most favourable to its case. But the important point that has to be remembered in connection with the wages of the men who are engaged in hewing coal is that their earnings depend on their output. Now, the Federation admits that the payment for the average shift may be said to be 19s In other words, the average miner practically earns £1 for every day he works. Upon this basis, his earnings for the year, according to the Federation, are £238 13s. The miner's working year, it will be seen, is not that of the man who is employed in any other industry. He does not work on the fortnightly pay day, and he takes other seventeen holidays during the year. Apart from Sundays and from 30 days a year which, we are told, must be deducted for accidents, sickness, breakdowns of machinery and other causes incidental to coal-mining, and lack of shipping and transport, he enjoys 43 holidays in the course of a year, and works on 240 days only. Nevertheless, his earnings leave him a margin over and above his expenditure as disclosed by a budget compiled by the working miners' wives in the various districts. This budget, covering, it is said, " the necessaries of life for a man, wife, and three children," shows an outlay of £219 3s 3d. The working man who is struggling along on a wage of £3 or less per week, with perhaps a war bonus, would, we doubt not, be interested in the composition of this budget. In any case he ■ will hardly agree that the miner who is, by his own admission, able to earn £1 a day and who works for only 240 days in a year should be especially regarded as an object for sympathy. The wages man at the coal mines is not so favourably situated as the man who hews coal at the face. His average wage is said to be 12s a day, and be works,- on the average, 255 days a year. His income, it is represented, leaves a deficit of £37 upon his annual outlay of £190. Apparently, he finds it possible to maintain his home upon about 10s a weak less than the man who works at the face. What must be obvious, however, in the case of both classes of workers, is, that as their earnings are considered by them to be insufficient, the remedy lies in their own hands. The Coal Mine Owners' Association has submitted proposals the adoption of which would materially increase the miners' earnings. The Miners' Federation, however, brushes these proposals aside, declaring them to be of a " most vicious nature." It is admitted by the Federation that there is a serious shortage of coal, entailing hardship more particularly upon the poorer classes. Even in such circumstances, however, any proposal for increasing the earnings of men who can, as in the case of those engaged in hewing coal, already earn £1 a day, is rejected by them so long as an effect of it would be to call for some extra effort on the part of the miners and to involve a sacrifice of some of the many days of voluntary idleness which they enjoy during the year.