COAL MINE DEADLOCK.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1414, 11 October 1923, Page 5

COAL MINE DEADLOCK.

CItOWK LAW OFFICE OPINION. MEN IN THE WRONG. (By Telegraph. Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The Hon. G. J. Anderson, in reply to Mr H. E. Holland, M.P., says the latter makes an unjustifiable deduction when asserting that because the Labour Department did not consult the secretary of the Miners' Union on the West Coast before he submitted a case for the opinion of the Crown law officers, it must have based the case submitted upon a statement made by or after consultation with the Coal Mine Owners' Association. It was neither necessary nor desirable that the Labour Department before stating a case for the opinion of the Crown law officers should communicate with either employers or workers. The only material facts were patent and undisputed. The first that the workers had openly and avowedly taken a ballot on two issues only—strike or "go slow." The second was that as a result of the ballot a. large number of workers had adopted the "go slow." The third fact was that consequent upon the action of the workers the employers closed the mines. The first q uestion in law was whether .the workers had committed a breach of the award. There could only be one answer to that. The next question was whether the employers had been guilty of an illegal Lockout by closing down. The opinion of the law officers on that point accords with common sense. The law did not require employers to keep open under the circumstances.