Lecture.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 6, 22 May 1914, Page 2

Lecture.

MINING CONDITIONS FROM 1889 TO 1914. A lecture on the above subject was delivered in the Miners’ Union Hall on the evening of Thursday, 14th inst., by Mr A. H-. Geary. The attendance numbered about 200, Mr J. Mellings presiding. “ Twenty-five years ago the ventilation was wholly natural; there were no artificial aid-in the shape of fans as at present. Tne air was most impure, and it was usual for the miner to leave the face and return to the main air course in order to obtain the oxygen he reuqired. Enough air went down to supply the miners working, but no means of conducting it to the places where it was wanted were adopted, as the bags put up for stoppings, were most ineffective. To-day there are brick stoppings and the air is conducted to the men’s faces so thoroughly that the Huntly mines are ventilated as well as any mines in the Southern Hemisphere, or in the world, for ithat matter. " Twenty-five years ago three mines were in operation in Huntly; viz., The Taupiri-Ex-tended, tlie Kimihia Mine, and the Waikato Coal Mine on the west bank of the river. The ldst two —in which considerable sums of money were lost —were worked on the most primitive lines by means of fork and riddle; the former to shift the house coal, and the latter to get rid of the slack. At the Extended the coal was screened at the surface. In the Waikato and Kimihia mines the hewing rates were 2/9 per ton for house coal, and 2/3 to 2 4 for steam, the slack being filled by the miner without remuneration. At the Extended the price was 2/2, the miner not having to classify or sort the coal won. In those days the miner had to truck t his own coal from the face of the li bord to the first lay-by, which I might be from 60 to 100 yards awJy, and sometimes he re- | quired two sprags in the truck I wheels to enable him to negotiate I a full skip safely. There was no | check weighman, the miners I being paid for 10 cwt. per skip, I instead of for the 12 cwt. which * many of them might carry. | Now-a-days the hewing rate is I 2 5 per ton, the coal being taken I from the face by the trucker, thus I proving a saving to tlie coalI getter of 5s per day. I In the morning the men left I the'bank at 7.45 and every miner I was at the face at 8 o’clock. At I 12 noon half an hour was taken I for crib, knock off at the faceocI curring at 4.30 p.m, a day’s work I thus being B V\ hours. Improved I tools and machinery as well as I the introduction of the 8 hours I day from bank to bank had done I a g-eat deal to improve the I miners’s lot. I In the earTy days there was a I.union which dissolved as one of »>e consequences of the mariItime strike. The organisation of I labour was not encouraged, and I no advantage was taken here of I the Arbitration Act until I three years after it had I placed on the Statute book. I Twenty years ago steam coal I was sold to Government in the I Huntly yards at 4 9 per ton — I this low price being the result of I the strong competition among the I three mines. The amalgamation I of the mines put an end to the I war of prices, and enabled the I large company to better the conditions and raise the wages of its employees. Quarter of a century ago the wages per man per week averaged 16 6d to £1 19 6 against the £2 12/6 earned on the average by the men working in these mines two years ago. While the worker sets his face against monopolies and combines of all kinds, he fails to see that the aim of labour to-day in the formation of a huge combine. This is the age of monopolies, and it is only by reducing expenditure and by combination that good wages and first class conditions can be obtained. At one time might was right; at another, as it is today, money was all powerful ; but the time is at hand when the best brains of the capital class must combine with the best brains of the labouring class to promote those social conditions which every right thinking person desires. The extremist, no matter on which s ; de he stands, is a menace and a danger to his clasts. He looks at one side only. As labour agitator or capitalistic monopolist he avoids the golden mean —conciliation and at bitration —because it brings about the loss ot a job, on the one hand, and presumably smaller profits on the other. Miners to-da.v live in what are palaces compared with the whares which formed their homes in 1889. In those days men lived well, if plainly, and there was no demand for the luxuries and the pleasures t>f 1914. Prices, undoubtedly, had advanced, but wages had increased more than proportionally, and while to day people could live plainly and save, they refuse to do so, the more luxurious method of living having made a greater call, on hisearnings than is necessary. In the. early days pianos, for example, were curiosities ; to-day they are found in almost exery house, even though they are merely dumb articles of furniture. It is the saioq with other things, and to preach Thrift is supposed to hark back to the middle ages. The result of the Arbitration Act lias been higher wages, improved conditions o-f living a>W working, and shorter hours ; and to it Huntly can trace the excellence and safety of its mines.

This act may not be perfect, but it is’ certainly in advance of that lorm of combination whjch, like the Irishman’s, is all on the one side, which is intolerant and far from being democratic.