Australian Flag Hoisted Over Coalmine

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 61, 15 March 1944, Page 5

Australian Flag Hoisted Over Coalmine

STORM CENTRE OF RECENT STRIKE Received Tuesday. 10.25 p.m. SYDNEY, March 14. Watched by a small group of Government and union officials the Australian flag was hoisted to the poppethead of tlio Coalcliif colliery this morning. It marked the taking over by the Commonwealth Government of the Coalcliff colliery, the storm centre of tho Southern New South Wales miners’ strike which ended to-day. Only two mines in the State are not working to-day. Coalcliff is the first mine to be taken over by the Government under the recent Coal Act. * 4 This is an historic occasion in the story of the coal industry of Australia,” said the Commonwealth Coal Commissioner (Mr. Norman Mighell), addressing the men. Tho flag-hoisting ceremony took place near the spot where Bass Flinders first discovered coal in Australia. The miners’ strike lasted three weeks during which more than 200,000 tons of coal are estimated to have been lost Because of their defiance of earlier orders to return to work 490 young miners were called up for the Australian Army. Many of these men had been trying to secure release from tho mines in order to enlist and the great majority accepted their call-up cheerfully. The appointment of Mr. William Yates, secretary of the National Broad casting Service, as Assistant Director of Broadcasting, has been approved. Mr. Yates has had a long administrative experience of broadcasting and has been closely associated with tho actual production of programmes as a performer, producer and author. He is a native of Lancashire and came to New Zealand in 1912, joining the Education Department two years later. He joined the Broadcasting Department in 1934.