NEW ZEALAND'S COAL TROUBLE.

Colonist, Volume LXII, Issue 15306, 20 February 1920, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND'S COAL TROUBLE.

This Dominion, like the Old Country, has a.n unsatisfactory state of affairs prevailing in its coal industry. The differences between the miners and the owners aro of long standing, and have tended greatly to the disadvantage of the community at large. Now that another conference is jn progress, the course of events may be reviewed. A conference between the miners and the mineowners was opened on August Ist, 1919. The menV representatives: put forward fay-reaching proposals for a national agreement, including considerable increases in wages, the aboli-j

tion of the contract system, the immediate reduction of Jiours to seven a day, bank to bank, with a further reduction in January; 1921,,t0 six a day, five days only to .be worked each week, and. only one shift in 24 hours, a, fortnight's holiday on full pay at Christmas and four days at Easter. The owners raised uncompromising opj position to the demands for the abolition of piecework, the reduction of working time, and the payment for holidays and lost time. It was estimated that the concession of all the demands would increase the. price of coal to the public by £1 a ton. As an alternative the owners offered to grant a further increase of 10 per cent, to piece-workers, and 15 per cent, to wages men, making a total increase to the former of 35 per cent., and to the latter 45 per cent, over pre-war rates. The addition to the iminers' wages bill was estimated at from £125,000 to £150,000 a year, and tho increase in tho price of coal at from 2s 6d to 3s a ton. The conference ended on August 13th without a settlement, and the owners' offer was rejected by secret ballots of the miners. The Miners' Federation handed over tho case to the Alliance of Labour, a deputation from which waited upon the Cabinet on August 16th, and received a reply that the Cabinet considered that the owners' offer was a>;fair one. The miners adopted the go-slow policy on September Ist, and it has been in openation more or less fully ever since. Within the last few weeks, the Welfare League, the Mayor of Auckland, and others have voiced the generally felt desire for another meeting of the parties to the dispute. The Prime Minister-is presiding at tho, conference that is now being held. We could wish tliat the proceedings on former oqeasions afforded a better ground for hoping for an agreement.