185

C—3

Government are directly concerned as lessors of the collieries, the royalty from which and the traffic of our minerals on the Brunner Eailway yield a weekly revenue of about £500, in the hope that, having satisfied you our company have done all that can be expected of them, and much more, to keep the collieries working, you may see y 7 our way to suggest some mode of averting such a catastrophe as the stoppage w 7 ould be. And here I would suggest a temporary suspension of the 6d. a ton. royalty, together with the Eailway Commissioners allowing a reduction on the railage, as the proper source to meet in part the deficit, as during suspension there would be neither royalty nor railway receipts. In proof of our company having done all that could be expected of any company to do, I beg to enclose extract from Grey Biver Argus of the 7th instant, giving a letter of mine on the subject. The £1,390 loss therein stated for four weeks will be vouched for by the Miners' Union Association accountants, now examining the company's books. This huge loss, upwards of £17,000 yearly, no one can expect the company to continue making : indeed, for myself, holding one-fourth of the company's share-capital, it is impossible for me to continue another week; and, having already extended the notice on two separate occasions to allow examination of company's accounts, though it could have been done in half that time, no object can be served by further extension. As you will be unacquainted with the circumstances leading up to this difficulty, allow me to explain briefly. Prior to the 10th March last the mode of payment at Brunnerton was on the screened coal delivered by the miners. The same practice obtains throughout New South Wales and most part of Great Britain. Under that system the wages earned by the miners at our collieries run from 10s. to 18s. daily for about seven hours, or an average of 12s. 3d. However, for a long time previous to the change there were a few miners agitating for a change, resulting at date named of the union's ultimatum to our mine-manager, by which we had to accept the payment of 2s. lOd. gross weight or submit to a strike, the union's vote for which being almost unanimous. At the same time the union protested they did not seek an advance in pay, contending this 2s. lOd. was the equivalent of 4s. net, w 7 hile we had proof of 2s. 3d. being the equivalent, and also that additional great loss would ensue, owing to there being no inducement in the gross-weight payment to miners sending out good coal, being paid as much for rubbish as for good coal. The past four months' experience of this change has unfortunately only too forcibly demonstrated the truth of our contention. The returns show a loss of 7-J per cent, of good marketable coal in favour of slack washed into the river. This alone is a loss of £4,000 yearly. The hewers, numbering 194 men, are making excessive pay—upwards of £4 weekly for less than forty hours' work ; and some of them do, notwithstanding the restrictions put on them by the union, make upwards of £1 daily. This restriction of output, coupled with union interference with the mine-manager's duties, have added largely to all headings of cost at the collieries, culminating in the losses shown, instead of the small profit previously earned under the net-weight system. I observe by Press telegrams from Brunnerton it is alleged the losses are due to mismanagement and excess surface-labour, &c. The same management and labour continue since the 10th March as previously, with the extra labour employed in cleaning, screening, and loading coal necessitated by the change named, and the excessive staff is necessitated by the obligation to comply with the Mining Act and union rules. All this loss and trouble has been brought about by the agitation of a few men not content with payment under the net-weight system ; indeed, it is safe to say their number does not exceed one hundred that will benefit by this change—a change which threatens to destroy the large capital sunk in the development of these coal-mines ; to ruin what has hitherto been the best-paying railway in the colony, the cost of which, together with the Greymouth Harbour works, exceeds £400,000; and to throw out of employment upwards of four hundred and fifty men and boys at the collieries alone, in addition to the railway staff and labourers at Greymouth, and thus inflict on the whole district incalculable injury, for it is quite certain the greater part of the entire population at Greymouth and Brunnerton —some five thousand people—are depending on the continuance of this coal business. The remedy we propose is a return to the former system of net-weight payment, or a reduction on the present rates on the gross weight equivalent to that previously paid on the net weight; or the company are willing to consider any proposal by the Miners' Union to w 7 ork the collieries on any equitable co-operative basis, whereby the miners may earn a fair wage, while giving the capital invested therein a small interest after providing for permanent charges. Saturday next being the last working-day for tho collieries unless the reductions asked for are conceded, and from the attitude adopted by their Unions Association I confess I have great fears of them doing so, or, at all events, to such extent as will at all meet the difficulty. In view of the whole circumstances, I trust the Government and the Eailway Commissioners may be able to suggest a means to enable our company to keep the collieries working with some assurance of assistance to meet the difficulty, pending the result of negotiations should the notice for stoppage be postponed to a further date. I have, &c, M. Kennedy, Managing Director, Grey Valley Coal Company.

The Secretary to the Cabinet to M. Kennedy, Esq. Sir,— Premier's Office, Wellington, 17th July, 1890. I have been directed by the Hon. the Premier to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 16th instant, relative to the proposed stoppage of the Brunner collieries. The Government was previously aware of the dispute between the miners and your company— upon the merits of which, however, it cannot offer an opinion—and, while regretting exceedingly that any such dispute should have arisen, I am to inform you that it is quite out of the power of the Government to assist the company by suspending the payment of the royalty from the collieries. The Eailway Commissioners also, to whom your letter w 7 as referred, do not see their w y ay to abate or reduce the railway-charges on the haulage of coal from Brunnerton to Greymouth.