The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS. TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918 COAL MINERS AND THE PUBLIC.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 396, 30 July 1918, Page 2

The Times. PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY AND FRIDAY AFTERNOONS.

TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1918 COAL MINERS AND THE PUBLIC.

" We nothmo extenuate, nor iel down auaht in malice

The prevalent shortage of coal is causing the public to Destow more thought upon the coal miners, their alleged grievances, and their latest demands, than would be the case were the consequences of the trouble confined to a limited section of the community. Coal is an almost universal essential. It is in short supply. It is in abundance in the mines ; but the output of the mines is so limited that suppliers are quite unable to meet the requirements of consumers. The jvork of the coalminer is more unpleasant and arduous than most kinds of toil, although ft is very far from being so much more risky as many people imagine. Accordingly nobody would grudge good wages to the men. This is a proposition to which all reasonable people will readily subscribe. But there is a wide difference between good wages and extortionate wages, and so far as the coal-miners are concerned the point is that the actual rate of wages is already as high as, if not higher than, is reasonable. When it is remembered that the miners' wages were good before the war, and have been increased since the war began by at least JU per ceat. j so that thev are extravagantly high, and when it is remembered also that the burden of any further increase will be borne by the public, including wage-earners, whose earnings are greatly less than tlia* of the miners, the demand for a rise now beiug made ! is seen to be quite unconscionable, j Indeed, so unreasonable is it that l one wonder" how the men enn be 1 so bold as to put it forward. The I

Government aic naturallj anxious to avoid trouble, but v.e trust that they will do nothing turther to encourage the miners thus to levy blackmail on the public.