GEORGE FLETCHER.]
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639. Mr. Herries.] Are you working under an award of the Arbitration Court?—Yes. 640. How long has the award to run?—Till the 31st March, 1904. It has run only three months out of the two years. 641. What hours are the men working ?—They are seven hours and fifty-five minutes underground, including half an hour for meal-time. 642. You are working under the Act of last session? —Yes; and under the Arbitration Court award. 643. Supposing that this Bill of Mr. Guinness's were passed, would it not override the award of the Court ? —Yes ; it would affect us to the extent of half an hour a day—fully half an hour. 644. But if the miners said that they would not take advantage of the Bill, if it passed, until the award ran out, would your objection fall to the ground ?—Certainly not. 645. Mr. Guinness.] Have you worked in a coal-mine yourself for any number of years ?—I have been connected with coal-mines since I was ten years of age. 646. But have you worked at cutting coal ?—No. 647. What are the longest hours that you have been underground at a stretch? —Thirteen hours. 648. Is that going in and out, or continuously underground?—Continuously underground, thirteen hours. 649. Is that for any length of time, or just for an odd day or two ?—For two or three years. 650. Did you find that that affected your health at all ?—No, it did not affect my health. 651. You look remarka.bly healthy now?—Yes, I believe so. 652. You have not been working underground for many years, I suppose? —Always underground. 653. Making inspections, and so on? —I have gone my daily rounds for years, eight and nine hours a day. 654. Do you think a miner's occupation is a healthy or an unhealthy one ? —Where the ventilation is attended to it is a healthy occupation. It is as healthy as you can wish to have it. 655. You would not say that it is as healthy as working out in the fields in the open air?—No place is as healthy as the open country. 656. A miner working underground, getting coal on piecework, we will say, works as hard as he can in order to get as much as he can, does he not ?—Yes; that is the general rule. 657. If a miner has worked continuously for seven hours, do you think he is able to put in as much work between the seventh and the eighth hours as for any one of the preceding four or five hours ?—He is better able to do his work for the full week if he works eight hours and not seven. 658. Why ?—Because he does not rush himself, as he would in the shorter time, so as to get his money. If a man knows he has eight hours to do the work in he takes it easier. I might mention here that if the hours are reduced it would be inflicting a hardship on the aged men. It would be a hardship to men of, say, fifty-five years of age, because they would not be employed. You would employ robust and healthy young men, and the older men would be thrown adrift, though they are as good as young men if they have an hour or an hour and a half more time in which to do the work. 659. Where did you gain that experience?—ln the Old Country—under the sliding-scale. I have been sorry for men who have been turned away—men able to make 3s. and 4s. a day ; but that brought down the average, and those men are not wanted, because the fact of their earning such small wages helps the stronger men to get an advance, and you have to guard against that. 660. You do not say that from your experience of the working of the mines in New Zealand, do you? —I say that from my experience of the Old Country; but it will apply to the mines in New Zealand, or anywhere else, if the hours are reduced too much—if they are reduced below eight a day. 661. Is half an hour a reasonable time for crib-time, or is it too long?—lt is any amount of time. The men have time to smoke as well. A man can swallow his bit of "tucker" in about ten minutes. 662. You have not heard any expression of opinion from the miners about this proposed amendment of the law?—l have not heard a word about it from the miners—in fact, I scarcely heard of it from anybody until I got the telegram to attend here. 663. Mr. Bennet.] There was no agitation in the mine that you manage for any change of hours ?—Not a bit. The men are as contented as possible, and are going on splendidly at our mine. 664. Have you any aged men working in the mine ?—Yes. We sometimes give those aged men a lighter job; but they have more time to do the work in and are not rushed. 665. That is an advantage to a person who is not as able as he was at one time ?—Yes, certainly. It is a disadvantage to men of years to reduce their hours, because then they have to go pell-mell. A young man can do it, but a man who is twenty years older cannot. 666. Mr. R. McKenzie.] The men ought to be pensioned off when they are fifty?—l can tell you, gentlemen, that getting coal is very easy in New Zealand compared with what it is in the Old Country, or even in New South Wales. What I have seen at Denniston and Granity is very easy. I might mention that the average earnings of our coal-hewers for the half-year was 16s. 3Jd. a day. Of course, there are only twenty-eight hewers. For the first three months of this year the hewing-rate was 2s. 3d. a ton, and for the latter three months 2s. 4d. 667. Mr. Herries.] Were you present in the Arbitration Court when the matters were argued before the award was made ?—Yes ; I conducted the Granity case. 668. Did the miners raise any question with regard to including the crib-time in the hours of labour?—They never said a word. I took a tracing of our workings, with the position shown where the men entered for the first mine and where they entered for the far-off one. For the men
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