The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE COAL SHORTAGE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16610, 6 December 1919, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE COAL SHORTAGE.

There is a great unsatisfied demand for houses in many parts of New Zealand, and at the same time one. of the largest cement works in. the Dominion, the New Zealand Portland Cement Company's at W arkwjjrtn, is idle owing to a shortage of coal. The works at Whangarei is not running at lull capacity for the same reason. Coal is being brought to New Zealand from Newcastle as rapidly as possible, but the Dominion miners have adopted a • •go-slow” policy and are putting out far less coal than they are capable of. Thus it is they who are responsible for the coal shortage and in a large measure for the shortage of houses and the high rents that have to be paid by tenants. During the three weeks ended November 29 the output of the Grcymouth mines totalled 16,730 tons, as compared with 19.637 tons in the corresponding weeks of last year and 20,149 tons in the two weeks ended November 22, 1917. The Westport output for the same period this year was 26,428 tons, as against 19,371 tons last year for two of the three weeks onty, no return being published for the third week, and 44,541 tons for the three weeks in 1917. The West Coast aggregate, for the full period in 1919 was 43,158 tons, while in 1918 it was 39,008 tops without counting one week at Westport, and 64,690 tons in 1917 with one week short at Greymouth. The average at Greymouth in 1917 was about 10,000 tons per week, so that the total for the full period would he nearly 75,000 tons. This year it is only 43,158 tons. In other words the West Coast mines are now turning out 10,000 tons less coal weekly than they did two years ago before the men came back from the war. This is at the rate of half a million tons a year, and the seriousness of the decline will .he better understood when we say that the whole output of coal in New Zealand averages only a little over two million tons a year, while the imports for the quinquennial period 1914-18 averaged about a third of a million tons annually. In. adopting a “goslow” policy the miners are sub-

posed to be fighting for better conditions at the mines, but they have chosen a time that is singularly inopportune from the point of view of the rest of the community. In their desire for better conditions at the mines the miners have the public sympathy —or they would have it if their action had not largely alienated it —but we have our own doubts whether that is the real reason. They have put forward other demands for shorter hours, abolition of the contract system, etc., and it is more than a coincidence that these are similar to _ the demands made by miners in oilier countries. In Australia the miners employed by the Broken Hill companies are claiming a six hours day and five _ days per week, abolition of night shifts and contract work, a minimum wage of £1 per week, with 25 per cent, extra if working outside a radius of two miles from the post office. There is so strong a similarity between these conditions and those demanded by the coal miners of New Zealand that one suspects, a common origin, somewhere outside of New Zealand. In any case the fact remains that (he coal miners of the Dominion, by deliberately restricting the output of coal, are holding up tho building trade and thus helping to maintain high rents. Their leaders belong to .the extreme Labour Party whose representatives in Parliament are Messrs. Holland, Fraser, and Semple, with Mr. P. C. Webb outside Parliament. These are the men who are seeking to control the legislative machinery of the Dominion and who will succeed unless the country is careful to return men to Parliament who will have no dealings whatever with the extremist Labour members. Sir Joseph Ward at Tenuika on Thursday declared that he would not remain in office if he had to depend on the suppoi't of men like Mr. Holland and Mr. Fraser. That is satisfactory as far as it goes, but he is ready to make use of Messrs. Holland and Fraser to defeat Mr. Massey, and some doubt may he entertained as to whether, having reached the Treasure benches with their help, he will not find some means of using them to retain office. Parliament would he tho better with those men outside, but if they are there the next best thing Ts to make them impotent for harm bv having a Government which can afford to ignore them completely.