COAL MINERS' ATTITUDE.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 July 1918, Page 7

COAL MINERS' ATTITUDE.

AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT. i.ijjii't ■:! :.: < By Telegraph.—Press Association. ■■'' •WellitigtODJ'.J'nly 20. The coal minera;'...offlciai.<3tatement of their attitude Messrs ORourke, Semple, and-/Parry, contends that "We have not JBsked : , for a variation in existing agreements in the way the employers wish to imply." The ony question is one of adjustment of wages, made imperative owing to the increased cost of n ljving. The employers' suggestion of a bonus is condemned as a speeding-up expedient, and leading |to increased accidents. In reply to the I employers; : ,statement that miners' wages range from 17s to 25a daily, the | miners point .put that tho average working days per annum are 240. Taking 19s IOJd per shift, the actual earning ■was £238 13s per annum, but from this was to be deducted £29 for explosives, £8 for tools. Miners' expenses and cost of living, based oh budgets compiled by working miners and their wives, averaged in 1918 £219 3s 3d per annum to eover necessaries fof man, wife and a family of three children, but does not cover union fees, medical subscription, Insurance association, and other incidentals, including recreation, all to be met out of the balance of £l9 9s 9d per annum. The financial position of the miner in 1918 was 55 per cent, inferior to his position in 1914. The only increase in wages since the war was 17% per cent. A man on 12s a day in 1918 was worse off than when receiving 10s :in 1914 by £37 3s 3d per annum. Miners to-<lay were producing more coal per man per day "than at any time in the Wstory of the. country." The output per man for New Zealand is "a world's record." The increase in the price of State coal for cash since 1912 in Wellington, Christchurch, Duncdin 'and Wanganui ranged from 3s to 6s per ton. The increase in retail prices of private companies' coal range from 6s Cd to 8s jier ton. The average increase in hewing rates per ton was 4J<3 to sd. So far as the Miners' Federation is conc<"tn«4 it is still open for negotiation*