CAUSE OF THE STRIKE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1933, 1 September 1888, Page 2

CAUSE OF THE STRIKE.

I Regarding the cause of the miners' strike it appears that m the newly -opened mines the miners were not making so much as they used to iv the old workings m consequence of the seams of clay and rubbish which were occasionally met with, and which had to be cleared out before the coal .could be got at. As the i men only received payment for the coal hewn, when these false seams were met with their wages ran down very low. The matter is stated to be m this way ; In the more recent workings where the Beams of coal do not run so clear ol rubbish, which does not count as coal it takes eight h.ours £o get 2£ tons of clean coal while miners m othnr mines can with greater ease get 2£ tons of poal during their working day. It is easy to see therefore that m order to put the two miners on an equal footing as regards pay, one of two things must ' happep^hey must either b© paid, at a |,

different rate or else work different ? I hours. But as the rule is eight hours per day m all mines, the adjustment, if irade at all, must be made on a wages basis. The standard rate of wages for years past has been 4s 2d per ton of clean coal — a man can get out 2^- tons per day — thus giving him at the rate of 10s 5d per day. Of course m some exceptionfil cases m some remarkably good mines a man might possibly get out from 25 to 50 per cent more coal m the day, but this would be m rare cases. The miner who could only get out his 2\ tons by reason of the extra amount of rubbish, could only make 9s 4^d as I against the other man's 10s sd. These figures are near enough to illustrate the case. If the miners were paid stated weekly wages this rubbish m the coal would not make any difference m their pay. But as they are paid by piecework — that is, for each ton of clean coal they raise, it is easy to see the difficulty they labor under >?hen part of their time is occupied not m getting coal but cleaning it. To overcome this there should be an allowance made to the miners proportionate to the extra amount of objec tionable matter m the shape of rubbish m the newer mines as compared with the older seams. The dispute is simply this — The owners refuse to make such allowance, hence m the newer mines the miners are heavily handicapped by this rubbish m their efforts to earn decent wages.