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Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1930, Page 8

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BRITISH. COAL MINES. It looks as though another serious -crisis in the British coalmining industry is being narrowly averted. The Act passed by .the Labour Government regulating the hours of working in mines came into force j:i Monday. It wont as near abolishing the’ cight-hcur day that was fixed at the close of the miners’ strike in 1926 as a minority Ministry could achieve. It provided for a:i average day of seven and a-balf hours, but allowed these to be spread over a fortnight's working so as to avoid waste time. This latitude was urged by the mine owners, and. there, seemed every chance of the measure being lost wnen the House of Lords insisted upon this and other conditions. Ultimately a compromise was effected. Flexibility in hours of working remained, hut the “spread-over” arranged between local miners’ organisations and local managements was to be subject to the approval of the Miners’ Federation. In several districts the necessary agreements in regard to hours had been made, but to the surprise of many the Miners’ Federation vetoed them all. This meant another stoppage in an . industry that has never recovered from the strike of four years, ago, and probably never will. The Minister of Mines used his. influence to prevent a hold-up, and in this he has had the assistance of local organisations of both masters and men. In Scotland a stoppage has happened, but it is hoped to localise the trouble and that the Miners’ Federation will adopt a less arbitrary attitude. Probably even a Labour Ministry never anticipated that what was intended as a mere savof face should be intprpreted as power by the federation. It would seem that already the lesson of 1926 is being forgotten by those who assume to act on'behalf of the miners. It is another instance of the arrogance cf tra unionism and the tyranny it will use if it has tihe power. The British coal miners dd' not require protection from arbitrary‘employers. .Tilley, like the majority of their employees, are only too anxious to keep the” industry afloat, and they know the magnitude of the task. It is the paid agitator from whom the rank and file need deliverance, though, as oiften in this country too, it seems difficult to convince the wage-earner that sudli is the fact.