STATE COAL-MINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2913, 12 January 1910, Page 41

STATE COAL-MINE.

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER, (From Our Own Correspondent?;)

GREYMOUTH, January 8

The Minister of Mines has at length broken his silence in regard to the recent difficulty at the State coal mine.

Speaking at a reception accorded him at Greymouth last night, Mr M'Kenzie made an interesting reference to the subject. In the course of his remarks he said that he had made the trip to the West Coast for the special purpose 6f dealing with' the trouble at the State mine. An erroneous impression had gained ground that the trouble was really settled on the occasion of the visit of the miners' delegates to Wellington, but that was not the case. No settlement had been arrived at there, and after offers had been made and refused to allow a Supreme Court judge or a Conciliation Commissioner to arbitrate in the matter, he decided to fall in with a suggestion that he should go to Greymouth and endeavour to settle the trouble himself. That he did, after fully arming himself with the facts of the case from the State's point of view—a course which it was imperative for him to take as the trustee of the people's interests. Of course, in coming to a decision, which he arrived at before meeting the men at Runanga, he had some guides, notably the Seddonville agreement, to work upon. He laid it clearly down that the Stat© employees should not be asked to work under conditions inferior to those ruling in the local privately-owned mines. He had made offers to the men—namely, to accept either the Denniston or Granity awards, or to go under the Seddonville agreement. As the issue of the negotiations, things were practically in the same position as before. The State had offered to undertake the whole of the trucking, provided there was a reduction in the hewing rate to compensate for this concession. The final agreement was that the miners should truck 22 yards, that the State should truck 28 yards, and that the Seddonville hewing rates should apply. The latter was really equivalent to a reduction of 2d per ton in the hewing rates. He was gratified that a settlement had been arrived at, and he trusted that the industry would continue to flourish.