WESTPORT COAL COMPANY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 25051, 6 December 1946, Page 8

WESTPORT COAL COMPANY

CHAIRMAN REPLIES TO CRITICISM MINING SYSTEM AND (P.A.) DUNEDIN, December 5. “The Westport Coal Company has been attacked, both in Parliament and out of it, as being a national scandal owing to its alleged wasteful methods of mining coal, for its losses of coal by fires in mines, for its failure to provide decent accommodation for its men, and many other crimes and misdemeanours. We resent these imputations, which are the result of ignorance and prejudice, and are often merely propaganda against the private ownership of mines,” said Mr James Begg, the chairman, at the annual meeting of the Westport Coal Company to-day. “The Westport Company’s mines have been worked on the same system and • under the same regulations as State-owned mines. It is true that new methods have been devised, but we have adopted these new methods. It is also true that coal has been lost through fires in the mines, but this applies also to State-owned mines. That our managers are competent and efficient is indicated by the fact that the State has drawn heavily on the Westport Company to provide managers for State mines, and one of the company’s former managers is now superintendent of all State mines. “Subsidies during -'the year were increased slightly to reimburse the company for claims granted by the Coal Mines Council,” Mr Begg added. “We dislike the whole system of subsidies, but with continually rising costs and fixed prices, no mine could continue working unless it was subsidised. The company does not receive the subsidy. It is merely the funnel through which it passes to employees. Subsidies paid to mines in New Zealand last year amounted to more than £1.100.000, equal to £2OO for every man employed in the mines. If the State is prepared to sell coal at a loss, privatelyowned mines cannot compete, and unless subsidised will close down. On level terms we have nothing to fear from State competition.”