LOST TIME AT MINES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 233, 26 June 1919, Page 3

LOST TIME AT MINES

WHY MEN TAKE RESTS

"A VERY HUMAN DISPOSITION"

WORKERS' VIEWPOINT

Time lost by miners is a considerable cause of reduced output of the mines. From an investigation of the time lost (it the .State mines for the purposes of the Board of Trade inquiry, it appears that the percentage of time, lost was H. 9. This takes no account of such recognised rest days as xinion holidays and pay Saturdays, and in the calculation the time counted as lost was on days when the mine could have worked, lc, when other causes such as lack of shipping or of trucks did not make it impossible to keeii the miho open; The time "lost" was time avoidably lost by the miners. The period covered is from April, 1913, to September, 1!)1S, for the Point Elizabeth Jiiine, and April, 1915, to September, 1918. _ for the Liverpool mine. This condition is typical, but not general. In some mines, the number of shifts worked per man lias increased, even although the mines have been opuu more days per year during 4he war period.

The report makes the following commentary:—

The explanation of any reduction (of time, worked) that pxisls is to be found in the- increase in the average earnings of the miner, and in the greater force exerted during the peiiod by those causes which bring about any absence from work-at all. An increase in money earnings tends of itself to make, the "miner shorten his working time, until he may be forced to realise tlint the increased earnings are oft'set by a rise in his expenditure. The nature of a miner's work is such that he sets a higher value on leisure than the ordinary worker, niul, after a certain point is readied in liis income, he is prepared to forego further earnings in return for an addition to its enjoyment, which implies ft considerable rise, in his standard of comfort. The use he will make of this additional leiflure, and its ethical value to the community as a whole, will depend upon 'hi* temperament, , , education, and the general environment society has provided for him. The Into Lord Rhomlda, writing in 1903 on "The Growth and Direction, of our Foreign Trade in Coal," generalises thus from his own research:

"Tlicro is a very human disposition on the part of Illie collier, noi unknown among those in other walks of life, to take life easier as income improves." In Xew Zealand the output per person employed underground has varied somewhat—l9l3, 590 tons; 1914, G39 tons; 1915, 711- tone; 191G,. 750 tons; 1917, 715 tons; 1918, 703 tons.

And the Board of Trade makes these remarks in comment:

An appreciable degree (f voluntary abBence is a feflturo associated, with coalmining in all countries. It is a tradition or custom deeply rooted in (he peculiar nature of the occupation, where men work deep underground for wages at a rate high enough to allow of a tolerable etandara of comfort without incessant labour. It is, in our opinion, a result of the strain and disagreeablencss of the work itself, and the 'opportunity for a cerUin amount of leisure offered by the comparatively high wages. Hotels, gambling, and race.? are not so much the- causes of absenteeism -as conditions favouring tho easy operation of the real causes, and influencing a cerlain section of the mining population to spend their leisure in certain ways rather than in others. The misuse of leisure is us great among the general population as amongst miners as a body if we take account of differences in environment and the opportunities of nsiing leisure. In n fow mining-fields, where alternative methods of spending leisure are few, the prohibition of alcoholic liquora or horae-raeing would probably lead to a slightly higher percentage of possible timo being worked; but tho average miner is convinced that he works sufficiently , long and oufTiciently hard, having due reg.ird to his health and eflleicncy. Any considerable improvement in iinnunl output per man mtiit .be looked for us the result of better training of tho worker, better organisation of labour within an.l without the mines, and a moro intensive application of capital in the shape of machinery, etc., rather than from nn extension of the n limber of shifts worked per year by the miner.