COAL TROUBLE SETTLED.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1921, Page 1

COAL TROUBLE SETTLED.

STATEMENT IN COMMONS. AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION. (Received This Day at 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, June 28. The House of Commons was crowded when Hon. Lloyd George announced the terms of the coal settlement. He said* the demand for a pool had been definitely abandoned. The Executive has decided to recommend the men to resume on Monday. Be thought the arrangements would ensure peace loi a very long period. The main feature of the permanent settlement was it fixed a, new system of remuneration, whereby the workmen shared the proceeds of the industry and thus had a direct incentive to produce. Mages would form the first charge on the industry and would not fall below twenty per cent above the 191 1 standard For other costs of the industry the employer took seventeen out of every hundred rounds, paid to workmen as standard wages, and the balance of the proceeds were divided seventeen pounds'to the owner and eighty-three to the workers. The settlement would last till December 1922. and vas then terminable on three months notice. To mitigate the severe fall :» "ages in some districts, Government prorosed to offer the ten million. The suggested reduction in July should not ex..OM 2/- \ ugost 2 fi. September 3/-. Then the’ lmrinß.o'iit arrangements would he i» operation. The «wnors agreed to forego profits tor tine*, months. . .

A National Board comprising owners and men, would he set up. also district hpards to decide controversies. He hoped the settlement would create new relations between capital and labour. He believed if the new system ' vas worked in the spirit of good-v.dL that it, would more than repay the damage the nation had suffered, and open n new era of co-operation.

Hon. As-juitli said there wa> no reason whv the principle of co-operation should not he extended. He supported the grant of ten millions. Mr Chiles approved of the scheme. MINERS EXECUTIVE. (Received This Day at 10.13 a.m.) LONDON, June 28. The Miners’ Executive have circularised members saving we have provisionally agreed to the terms of the wages settlement. This responsible step of taking power to negotiate ,after a ballot was due to our knowledge that the national pool could not he secured by a continuance of the struggle. Every economic political factor was dead against us. This settlement represents the maximum that can he secured in the present circumstances and an improvement upon the terms submitted to the last ballot, When normal trade returns, new principles will he embodied in the settlement to provide for more just methods of fixing wages than we have ever had before in the industry. Wo strongly urge you to accept the agreement.