STRIKE AT HUNTLY MINES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20030, 31 August 1939, Page 15

STRIKE AT HUNTLY MINES

EFFORT FOR SETTLEMENT COM; FOR HOSPITALS PROVISION ASSURED (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. With a view to settling the strike involving about 1000 employees of the ILuritly coal jmines, a compulsory conference is being held in Wellington to-day. Representatives of the Northern Miners’ Union and Glen Afton Collieries Limited will confer with the Minister of Labour and Mines, the Hon. P. C. Webb.

The dispute arose from the discharge of a 76-year-old man working a„t the Glen Afton mine. The company has refused to re-engage the old miner and, after a statement toy Mr. Webb published yesterday the manager of the company, Mr. C. M. Richwite, issued the following statement: “The company will be represented at the conference by the manager, Mr. Richwhitc, the chairman of directors, Mr. F. E. Hughes, and the collieries .superintendent, Mr. P. Hunter, all of whom left for Wellington by the Limited express.” Following receipt of numerous tele' grams from hospitals as far as the North Auckland district to Taranaki on the West Coast requesting that supplies of coal be made available to the institutions, Mr. T. Hall, secretary of the Northern Miners’ Union said that every effort would be made to keep the hospitals supplied with fuel. About 70,000 tons of coal were lying at Rotowaro for the Waikato Carbonisation Company Limited, he added, and, if necessary, the requirements of the hospitals would be dispatched by the -company’s employees