LABOUR’S MINING POLICY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, 17 July 1930, Page 9

LABOUR’S MINING POLICY.

Hold Up In House Of Lords SPREAD-OVER PROPOSAL RETAINED. United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received July 16, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 15. The House of Lords, by 168 votes to 36, carried Lord Salisbury’s "spreadover” amendment to the Coal Mines Bill, which the Government refused to accept. The House also defeated, without division, a motion for a conference of both Houses. The Lord Chancellor said the Government could not accept the amendment, and insistence upon it would cause widespread provocation and resentment. Lord Salisbury said tha amendment mainly concerned the preference by the House of Lords for a spreadover of ninety hours a fortnight, instead of a rigid seven and a-half hours daily. Spreadover was optional, and the miners were by no means unanimously opposed to it. The Chancellor replied that the proposal, in any case, could operate only for eight months, and it was therefore not worth the trouble it would cause. Regarded as Challenge. The decision of the House of Lords places the Government in a position of having to choose between the acceptance of their proposals, or the abandonment of the Coal Bill. Ministers will probably be driven to the method of "amending the amendment,” if it can induce the miners to agree. Opinion is generally expressed ithat a way will be found to save the Bill, but the “Daily Herald" describes it as the most serious challenge to the supremacy of the popular will since the House of Lords rejected the Budget in 1909.