Control Of Coal Mines

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 121, 17 February 1944, Page 4

Control Of Coal Mines

Sir, —Faced as New Zealand is with shortage of coal due to industrial unres' in the coal mines and the inability of State ownership oT control to cope with the problem, it is appropriate to quote the words of an Australian Royal Commissioner, Mr. Justice Campbell, who, in 1920, after taking evidence lasting many months, summed up the industrial .issues in these words, which are so tellingly applicable both to Australian qud Aew Zea land coal-mining troubles today: “Whatever may be the faults of the existing system of ownership and control (of the coal mines) it is at least tempered by competition, by the influences 01 the industrial element, and by public* opinion, all of which have hitherto worked successfully .to prevent the industry as a national instrumentality being used to exploit or oppress the community as a whole. Would that harmless character be preserved under any system which gave control to those who would benefit by its misuse? Before an affirmative answer could be given the colliery employees must-produce some, better records of tenderness for public interest than they have afforded up to the present. Whatever may be suggested as the faults of the employers, individually or collectively, there remains to the debit. ot the employees a deplorable record of indifference to the national need of increased production, defiapce of arbitration laws, a selfish insistence on. trivial demands, a conspicuous lack of internal discipline, and a subordination of nunc and action on the part of the moderate and serious minded of the employees to the crude and hectic preachings of. an inconsiderable section of their body. ■ I am. etc., HATS OFF. Wellington, February 15.