AUSTRALIA’S COAL CRISIS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18492, 6 February 1930, Page 9

AUSTRALIA’S COAL CRISIS.

Hopes Of Early Settlement, SMOOTHING OUT DIFFICULTIES. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright, j SYDNEY, February 5. Hope emerged once again from the silence which enveloped the latest coal settlement negotiations. All parties—the Federal and State Ministers, the employers and miners’ representatives—maintain secrecy over some of the most delicate adjustments yet attempted. • It is believed the basis of agreement will provide for the Federal Government carrying the disputed proportions of the production cost reductions until the Arbitration Court gives a final award. Mr J. H. Scullin and Mr E. G. Theodore went to Canberra last night and will return to Sydney at the Weekend. One of the big stumbling blocks is Rothbury, but it is rumoured that the State Cabinet will do everything to forward a settlement, conditionally on sufficient assurances of sincerity being given. It is reported in Cessnock that Mr John Brown, the owner of the Pelawmain and Richmond main collieries, visited the fields during the week-end, and declared that if the militants could be subdued the trouble would be over in a fortnight. Mr Branxton and members of the Miners’ Federation have been cut off the dole owing to refusal to lift the black ban. It is now stated that the Government is considering the withdrawal of all doles being paid to out of work miners on the Northern field. The Cabinet contends that in view of the financial stringency it cannot afford to keep men for whom work is available. Before the actual withdrawal is ordered, an effort will be made to persuade the men to accept the work offering. The present figures are that 1650 miners are receiving the dole, the weekly cost of which is £I3OO. There are also 300 families on the coalfields drawing endowment at an average of £3B yearly per family.