BRITISH MINERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18896, 23 June 1923, Page 7

BRITISH MINERS

NEW WAGE BILL INTRODUCED. THE MEASURE REJECTED. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, June 22. \ (Received June 22, at 9.40 p.m.) The House of Commons fully debated the position of the mining industry, which has been the subject of considerable agitation. The miners, with 44 members of the House of Commons forming the .largest group of the Labour Party, introduced a minimum wage Bill providing for a minimum wage ot 76 per cent, above the 1914 basis, with subsequent adjustments according to the cost of living as shown by the official index figure. It was agreed that this would mean £12,500,000, which fifr. Adamson (Labour) suggested, the owners could make up by better organisar tion of the industry and the elimination of intermediate profits. , The Bill was rejected bv 230 to 154 The owners replied that the Bill would mean unemployment and dearer coal. Mr Hartshorn (Labour) sajd the Bill would raise the wages of the 20 lower grades ,of workers in South Wales to only about 45s 4d for a five-day week. With the present wage there was uphope of industrial peace. • Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame (President., of the Board of Trade) said the Bill meant jettisoning the existing agreement which was working well. The present wages were not the result of a faulty agreement, but were due to the economic conditions surrounding this and other industries. The Bill was rejected by 230 to 154 votes.—A. and N.Z, Cable.