OTIRA TUNNEL

Hokitika Guardian, 4 February 1921, Page 3

OTIRA TUNNEL

THU I..UIOVR POSITION

No ngreenint has been arrived at in regard to the new contract price for tin" tunnel workers employed at the Otira end. The Department has made an offer of £ls IBs a foot and £1 Is a foot to be paid as a bonus on completion. Union officials are asking that the rate should he £l6 Us, without any portion deferred. They say that they have been working amicably for nine months at. the full rate, that the hard rock ahead means slower progress, and that material for which they have to pay has gone up in price fairly coniderably. Within a year, they say, gelignite has gone up from Is 9d a pound to Os 2d, and fuse has risen by 2d a coil. ' ‘

The Department’s engineers reply that £l6 Its was the contract price for a particularly had stretch of country, with a great deal of water coming in from the roof, and consequent danger from slips. The men are now getting out of the “bud country,” and a lower price would be fair and reasonable.

Discussing the labour situation on Tuesday Mr Coates said that on behalf of the Department lie’ had offered the Otira men £ls 10s a foot, with £1 Is a foot as a bonus when they finished the job. The men were now considering that offer.

Mr Annan urged the Minister to establish a dry canteen at Arthur’s Pass to allow the men to get supplies at the cheapest possible rate. He complained that stores charged "about as more a tin for kerosene than the Department. That was one instance.

Mr Coates said that lie would look again at a report oil the subject . Fie believed that this report said that the net benefit for tlm men from a “dry” canteen would be very slight. The Minister said that on his return to Wellington lie would go into the question of pay for eleven days in July when work stopped at Bealey end. The men alleged that there had been what amounted to a lock-out. The engineers replied that the Department had not stopped the men working. They had refused to go on at the old contract,