THE COAL INDUSTRY.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 14 February 1927, Page 6

THE COAL INDUSTRY.

AUSTRALIAN MINERS' DISPUTE. (Pct Press Association—Copyright. SYDNEY, February 12. The Federal official inquiring into the coal dispute, conferred with Mr Justice Hibble, chairman of the Coal Tribunal, and then returned to Melbourne, after telegraphing the result of inquiries to Mr Bruce. Early Federal action i.s expected. It is unofficially stated that there are good prospects of a settlement. The Northern Colliery Owners’ Association has issued a statement that the owners desire peace. It adds: “For years there has. been such instability, dislocation, and continual interruption of production as a result of sectional stoppages, that to-day the Australian foreign trade in coal, which once spread all over the Southern Hemisphere, and even to remote countries, is practically non-existent, and even in the Australian market the cost of production has been so forced up that consumers are already replacing coal by other means ot power.” The statement concludes by appealing to the miners to refrain from a strike, which would be as foolish as it would be calamitous