HIKURANGI COAL STRIKE

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1931, Page 9

HIKURANGI COAL STRIKE

GRAVE DANGER OF FLOODING.

men almost UNANIMOUS.

By .Telegraph.—Press Association. Whangarei, Aug. 24. Crucial conditions continue in connection with the strike which commenced last Wednesday at Wilson’s (N.Z.) Portland Cement. Company’s mine at Hikurangi. Two hundred men attended the meeting of the Miners’ Union branch yesterday when the decision was reached on a practically unanimous vote to hand the dispute over to the National United Mine Workers’ Union. Representation? have been telegraphed and it is expected that a definite reply will be received early this week. “The men are not worrying whetherthe mine is closed or not; the owners have been holding that bogey over our heads all the time, using it as a weapon to bring the men into submission,” declared Mr. Latham, secretary of the union.

In the meantime the mine is manned by a skeleton staff. Five pumps have reached the surface and are being dismantled. The management indicates that unless the men resume work tomorrow the last eight pumps (big eightinch), which cost £l5OO, will be withdrawn, which would mean the irretrievable swamping of the workings; There is much anxiety concerning the safety of the men in the adjoining mine of the Hikurangi Coal Company as the workings there are bound to flood if Wilson’s mine is left unattended.

The total number employed at Wilson’s Hikurangi mines is 360, while other small mines in the vicinity employ 60 men.

Wilson’s workers declare that the next move must come from the company.