OUTPUT SINCE RESUMPTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 242, 14 October 1942, Page 4

OUTPUT SINCE RESUMPTION.

THE WAIKATO COALMINERS. "In the first v/eek after resumption, despite various interruptions, the Waikato mines produced 16,152 tons of coal and in the second week 16,832. This was 800 to 1000 tons ■above the pre-strike average," said the Minister for Mines, Mr Webb, in an interview at Auckland. "We had to choose between coal and chaos," said the Minister, commenting on the arrangement made betwen the employers, workers, and the Government regarding wartime control of mines. "Making the mines a Government-controlled industry is purely a war measure," he added. "When the mines resumed a fortnight ago over 60 factories, plus freezing and fertiliser works, were within a week of exhausted coal supplies. "Had the strike continued for another week, all the industries in the North Island would have closed down." Discussing the settlement of the strike, Mr Webb said: "Past experience should have taught those who y/ere crying out for the use of the fcig stick that such methods only aggravate a delicate situation. The miner will not be bludgeoned. Most oi them can see re^on, and reason ultimately prevailed. Neither the owners nor the Government believed that imprisonment of the men would have got the country out of its economic trouble" Mr Webb said that the full powers of the State must be behind a maximum war effort.