THE COAL TROUBLE

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1926, Page 3

THE COAL TROUBLE

GOA DOWNERS’ ATTITUDE

[Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] LONDON. Sept, 13. Air Evan Williams has sent a letter to Air Churchill stating except one small inland district, twenty-four district Associations clearly and emphatically decline to authorise the Alining Association to enter an agreement regarding the terms of employment. You will accordingly see that the proposed meeting will servo no useful purpose, and would be harmful, as it might expose the parties to a charge 1 of insincerity. The Owners’ District Associations are willing and anxious to meet the District Miners’ Associations to which there is no valid obstacle. The owners are not objecting to wage regulation by preference to ascertained results, or a minimum percentage under which wages cannot fall. The determination of those and other points can only be made by those familiar therewith, and forced to face the results. A failure to recognise these facts alone prolong the struggle. The owners’ decisions are based on the conviction that national settlements by ljnking industry with politics, remove industrial questions from the economic sphere, and have destroyed the peace a nd prosperity of those engaged in the industry, and are a- menace to the community.