BRITISH COAL TRADE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1925, Page 7

BRITISH COAL TRADE.

THE STATE SUBSIDY. LOXPOX, August C. The Government will to-day ask the House of Commons to authorise the payment of a subsidy of £10,000,000 to the coalmining industry, the sum named to cover the period to" May 31, 1926. An explanatory memorandum in connection with the settlement of the dispute has been published. This says:— "The inquiry sliould be. completed ,in good time before May, 1920. The Government's assistance, will enable more pits to be worked and more men to be employed than if the 1924 agreement were continued without assistance. It will also enable the industry to work at the same cost for the same prices and to pay the same scale of wages as if the coalmine owners' proposals had been carried out. "The Government provides no gUarantee that the pits already closed will be reopened. Better trade will automatically diminish thd amount of the eubvcntion, whereas a worse state of trade Will mean that the subvention, though atta higher rate, will be protected from ah indefinite increase by being restricted to a smaller number of pits. This ■will result in the closing down of the unreinu,nerative pits. "The Government has satisfied itself that it hae taken adequate safeguards against the possibility of the amount of subvention being improperly increased by an undue lowering of prices, or by charging against the Exchequer expenditure upon equipment, development, etc., which would not be propefly chargeable to revenue costs. "After surveying the whole position, and with all reserves for incalculable factors, the Government has decided to ask Parliament at present to vote £10,000,000. If this should not be sufficient, further authority will be sought from Parliament." EMPHATIC PROTESTS. The White Paper on the coal position hae caused much criticism in the lobby of the House of Commons, especially the intention to pay the same subsidy to the profitable collieries as to the most penurious, owing to the adoption of the principle of payment by districts. It is understood that during to-day'e debate Sir Robert Home, Conservative member for Hillhead (Glasgow) and a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, will attack the Government's policy from the standpoint of the business community. The South Wales and Monmouth coalmine owners met at Cardiff and decided to accept the draft arrangement with the Government. They emphatically protested, however, against the manner in which the Government eettled the dispute. The owners contended that the settlement was not in the best interests of the coal trade or the country as a whole. It is reported that a travelling commiesi on. largely composed of experts, will be the most likely form of the Coal Commission to be set up. It is expected to tour the coalfields and investigate the trouble on the spot, also to inspect the books, condition of the machinery and the production at each colliery. Sales, organisation and distribution will also be considered, especially the difference between the pit-head prices of coal and the charge made to consumers. The South Wales mineowners are now considering the -reopening of their pits, some of which have been closed for a year. WHAT LABOUR SATS. The general eecretary of the Miners' Federation, Mr. A. J. Cook, in an interview published in the "Daily Herald," says the federation had nothing to Ao with the terms contained in the Whfte Paper. The owners had driven a bat* gain wit* the Government out of all proportion to what they were entitled to. It was apparently to bo possible for collieries which made 2/ or 3/ or even 4/ a ton profit to participate hi the subsidy. -~ The political correspondent of the "Daily -"News" says the beer tax suggestion emanated from Conservative quarters, where the Government's humiliation is deeply resented. .There is a keen desire to inflict some punishment upon organised labour, Bays i the correspondent, but there is no justification for supposing that the Government will impose a beer tax. Higher taxes are probable in. 1920 in vie* of/ the steady rise in .national expenditure, ttit other classes of taxpayers will Tjs; selected as victims.—(Reuter-"Suii."> •