COAL QUESTION.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16724, 6 January 1920, Page 6

COAL QUESTION.

UNREST STILL PREVALENT. i I association TCLEGHAM . / "WELLINGTON, January ~>. \ Tho situation in the co:il industry rc- i mained unchanged during tho holidays, | but it if, reported that the miners are , threatening'now to reduco tho output ; further. ] ,\lr Massov has been in communica- ■ ion with both the miners and the | owners. The miners demand another j conference. Tho owners, it is under- j stood, consider such a confcrcncc unr.ecessr.ry, in view of the full and open discussion which took placo last year. I but they aro willing to meet tho miners | delegates again on certain conditions. ! One condition is tho prior resumption j of normal working methods. | If the dispute is not in the i near future the people of New Zealand are likely to suffer a very acuto short- j nge of coal next winter. Accumulation of .stocks under present conditions is scarcely possible, and most of the large consumers of coal are living from hand to mouth at tho present time. j OTAGO COAL MINES. i j (SPECIAL TO "THE PnF.SS.'*) DUNEPIN, January o. Work was resumed this morning at thn Knitangata, Green Island, Taratu, and other Orago coal mines. Fifty-seven Tara.tu coal-minors arc to bo charged with a breach, of the award by absenting themselves without Icavo from the 24th to tho 20th October last. Tho clause of tho award which it is alleged was broken provides that no miner or other worker shall absent himself from work during liis proper working hours while the mine is at work, without tho sanction of the manager or sub-manager, or deputy, except through sicklies 1 -, or accident, or other satisfactory reason. It appears that the men took n stand to endeavour to secure the reinstatement of a hand who had been dismissed.