"BE-CAREFUL."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 237, 6 October 1928, Page 18

"BE-CAREFUL."

ADVICE TO; 'STATE MINERS. MANY STOPPAGES OF WORK. ''SOMEONE MAY GET .VEKY HAKD.", '§ By '-Telegraph.—Parliamentary Eeporter.) ■WELLINGTON, Friday. That tie men -working in. State .mines "ougKt t«>:be very careful/before they decided to stop . -work, because of a fancied grievance -was made plain /by the Prime Minister in the House of■ Representatives to-day, in answering a.questiorCby the lieadeiurf the Opposition; regarding short" time in the'mines. Mr. T. E. Y. Seddon (Westland) associated limseli with Mr. Holland's; question, •which" related to the desirability of set-ting-up a commission to inquire, into thecauses of short time in the mines. "The causes are very well known, to everyone, 'I think," ieplied Mr. Coates, "and:;for the life of. me, after thinking the : matter over, I can't think of suffici-ent-grounds for a.commission." Mr.: Holland" suggested that local men could;give'evidence from the local viewpoint. ,;,.,_• , •-, , -.i. ■ ... "They haye'.tnatVopen to them now," saidi"Mr. Coates, who went on to detail a list of Jfor. short time in the State and-other West Coast mines.

The Prime Minister mentioned that recently- alii hands; had stopped work because two miners who had turned out "dirty? , coal had teen put off. It was an "understood thing that when men turned out dirty, coal —coal with stones in it;._and_"that sort of thing—that they werejrput ;at the bottom of the list, as far as employment was concerned. Mr. Holland: Sometimes these things are iused for,;the ■ of men. I the men stopping otherwise, unless they thought there was something'like/that.! : •• 1. ■: Mr.'.Coates: Oh, I can't believe that— course, I must accept the hon. gentleman's word. . However, all I can say.is that men ought to be very careful Before they stop work. One of these days,'if they do that eort.of thing, somebne.;;will get.very hard, and say "There is too much coaL We must close down."