NATIONALISATION OF MINES

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 199, 22 August 1919, Page 8

NATIONALISATION OF MINES

— I "LABOUR'S STRONG PLANK" I The suggestion that the time hast nr_fccd when the whole of the coal mines! of Xew Zealand should he nationalised j upon certain conditions was referred tr. several leading representatives of Labour) for their opinions. j Mr. Savage, secretary of the Labour; party, said that Labour's policy was! nationalisation, but he was not entiru*i-i ustic over the proposal, because any. such scheme engineered by the enemies of nationalisation could be nothing else; but a failure. It was essential :f it ; was to bo a- success for it to be adminfc-i tered by tho friends of labour. Control] by the enemies of .Labour to Labour's de-j triment was prevalent in municipal and other concerns. The method of administration in any such national sen-erne should necessarily be one that would ensure democratic control. The people (the worker) as the dependents of such an industry should have the control. •Mr. Tom Blood-worth, president of ihe Federation of Labour, reiterated tiie' statement that Labour had always! stood for nationalisation. ThU applied to the coal mines, and it would be better! that they should be so, provided the con-! trol was satisfactory. He favoured the' proposals (unbodied in Mr. Justice San-key's report as presented in Great Britain, because the proposals embodied therein met with the approval of economists, and also the 'Miners' Federation. Any proposals which did not meet with the approval of the miners obviously could not be satisfactory- worked. * ! Mr. A. A. Rosser, speaking in a' private capacity, said that he approved of the proposal, and he believed that the mine owners would 'be prepared to *ell to the Government conditionally they got their price. " j