COAL TRADE REGULATIONS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3177, 30 August 1917, Page 5

COAL TRADE REGULATIONS

PROVISION FOR COMMITTEES OF CONTEOL. It is notified by a Gazette Extraordinary that Part 2 of the Coal Trade Regulations made on February 5 last has been revoked, and now Regulations substituted. Under these new Regulations any portion of-New Zealand may bo declared a coal-trade district, and a coal trade committee may be appointed for tho district. Tho functions of each coal trade committee will bo:—(a) To inquire, at tho request of the Minister in Charge, into all matters relative to the production, importation, exportation, supply, purchase, eale, distribution, carriage, storage, and uso of coal, and into all matters arising out of the administration of the Coal Trade Regulations, and to advise the Minister as to all such matters as nforesaid. (b) To exorcise, on behalf of the Minister in Charge, any powers vested k him by the Coal Trade Regulations, so far as any such powers may for tho time being bo delegated to any such committee bv tho Minister, (c) To grant permits Tinder these regulations. It is notified that without a permit from tho coal trade committee of a coaltrade district, or by the Minister in Charge, it will not be lawful for any person to deliver or bo concerned in tho delivery of any coal at any place within that district, in pursuance of any contract of purchase, whether made before or after the constitution of that district; but nothing in tho Regulation will apply to the delivery of coal for domestic or other uses in quantities not exceeding one ton at any one time, and not exceeding two tons delivered to any one person in any ono period of twouty-cight days. In granting a permit the cominitteo or the Minister may iniposo such terms and conditions as may bo thought advisablo for the regulation of tho coal trade and the maintenance of industries essential for the public welfare. When coal has been delivered under a permit, 110 person may uiereafter, without the «m.<ent of the committee or Minister by whom it was granted, deal with that coal or be concerned in dealing therewith otherwise than in accordance with the terms and conditions on which tho permit was granted. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT. The Hon. A. Myers, Minister in Charge of Munitions and Supplies, when approached by u representative of the Dominion in regard to the gazetted amendment of the Coal Trade Regulations, stated that the Government had decided it was necessary to assume control over the distribution of coal supplies available within the Dominion at an early date. Tβ give effect to this decision ho is now empowered- under the Coal Trade Regulations to define coal-trade districts, and to appoint local coal trado committees to, subject to his direction, control supplies of coal within such districts. At present die work of defining district and appointing committees is in. hand, and will it is hoped, be sufficiently iar advanced for further action to be takon, probably next v.eek.