COAL STRIKE

Southland Times, Issue 21997, 22 April 1933, Page 9

COAL STRIKE

WAIKATO MINES. CONFERENCE OPENED. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, April 21. Two. of the five companies operating in the Waikato coalfield declined to attend the conference held to-day with the Under-Secretary of Mines, Mr A. H. Kimbell, who arrived from Wellington for that purpose. Mr Kimbell will confer privately with these two companies. Mr Kimbell in a statement said his object was to smooth out the differences so that the production and distribution of coal should proceed along orderly planned lines. “It is clear that if several of the mines are forced by uneconomic competition to close many miners will be rendered idle and much capital lost,” he said. The companies which refused to attend fee' conference are Taupiri and Glenafton. The Taupiri Company declared that the “existing strike was caused wholly by the individual, illconsidered, regrettable, and unjustifiable action of the Renown Collieries.” The president of the New Zealand Coal Owners’ Association, Colonel W. D. Holgate, said he did not consider any good purpose could be achieved by State interference at present. Mr Kimbell’s conference with the Renown, Pukemiro and Wilton Companies is being held in camera. DECISION OF MINERS’ COUNCIL (Per United Press Association.) Greymouth, April 21. Advice has been received here that the National Council of United Mine Workers of New Zealand meeting today at Christchurch resolved that in the event of a satisfactory settlement of the dispute at the Renown Colliery, in the Waikato district not being obtained through the present Auckland negotiation, the matter will immediately be taken up by the Miners’ National Council with the Coal Owners’ Association, and that failing a settlement then being arranged, the Miners’ Council will recommend a national stoppage in support of the Northern Miners’ Union.