BRITISH MINING INDUSTRY

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15273, 25 June 1923, Page 5

BRITISH MINING INDUSTRY

COLLIERS' WAGES. COMMONS REJECT RISE. Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn. LONDON, June 22. The House of Commons fully debated the position of the mining industry, which has been the subject of considerable agitation among members. Forty-four members, forming the largest group in the Labour Party, introduced a Minimum Wage Bill/ providing that the minimum wage shall be 76 per cent, above the 1914 basis, with subsequent adjustments according to the cost of living shown by the official index figure. It was agreed that this would mean, £12,500,000, which Mr, William Adanison (Labour) suggested the owners could and would make up by better organisation of the industry, and the elimination of intermediate profits. The owners replied that the Bill would mean unemployment and dearer coal.

Mr Vernon Hartshorn (Labour) said the Bill would raise the wages of 20 lower grades of workers in South Wales to o nly about 45s 6d for a fiveday week. With the present wage there was no hope of industrial peace. . Sir P. Lloyd Greame, president of the Board of Trade, said the Bill meant the jettisoning of the existing agreement, which was working well. The present wages were not the fault of the agreement, but were due to economic conditions surrounding this and other industries.

The Bill was rejected by 230 votes t 0 154.