WORKS AT LAKE COLERIDGE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1481, 2 July 1912, Page 4

WORKS AT LAKE COLERIDGE.

ALLEGED UNSATISFACTORY CONDITIONS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Christchurch, July 1. According to men who have been employed at tlii- Lake Coleridgo hydro-elec-trical iiulallstlion works, tlio conditions under which tho men employed on tiio tunnel contract labour aro far iroin being satisfactory. ■Tallies liyan, a miner, who has been engaged .at mining all his life, slated to a ncusjiaper reporter to-day that (ho conditions at Lake Coleridge aro tho worst ho has ever known. Ho was working at tho outlet portion of the tunnel, and described the country being worked through as consisting mostly of a kind of sand with boulders in it. Three shifts alter ho went down to work iu this portion of tho tunnel two men wore nearly killed owing to a fall of earth and slo'iio from tho roof. He alleges that with three ineu in a shift, six feel, a iluy is being driven. Ho further alleges that Iho timbering is a long way behind, inid contends Hint in such soft country tlio limbering eJiould bo kept close up to (he men working on the face. There are, ho states, chains and chains without timbering, and he anticipates serious trouble unless something is done when tlio men meet who aro driving tlio tunnel from tho opposito ends. Jlo himself look from the roof a boulder weighing- twenty pounds, which if it had landed on a vital spot would have l>cen sufficient to kill a man. On smother occasion two men had tlio tools knocked from their hands by a fall of C avsh from tho roof. When Ilyan spoke, to tlio leader of tlio shift on tho subject, he replied: "I think timber is wanted, but tho boss thinks different." liyan, whoso statements were corroborated by another who had worked on tho works (J. A. Mliotl) also complains Hint the men employed by tho contractor for the tunnel arc practically compelled to board at a boardinghouso kept by the contractor, who is alleged to have laid it down that unless men board at his boardinghouse they kiiow what to do. It is further alleged tliat ho will not allow the men to "batch," and in this respect tho co-operative workers employed directly by frho Public Works Department are said to bo belter off as they are allowed to"bntch" in tents which can bo mndo cosy. Ifynn and Elliott stated that.the. food supplied at the boardiughouse was not satisfactory, consisting chiofly of mutton, cooked in different ways, and potatoes. One- woman is alleged 'to cook and wait on about forty men at crib time. Tho men at work on tho tnnncl have to take their food in the open air under very cold climatic conditions. They state that the contractor has no difficulty in getting men, but many leave as soon as they can, owing to the alleged unsatisfactory conditions.