"OUR OWN BOSSES"

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1923, Page 8

"OUR OWN BOSSES"

CO-OPERATIVE MINERS

CAN THEY DO THE JOB AT

MARKET PRICE ?

Has co-operative mining an economic future in New Zealand?

A form of co-operative mining is the tunnelling contract (held by Mr. Semple's party) for the waterworks tunnel between the Wainui-o-mata and the Orongorongo streams. "But," the individualist will object, "that contract is not economic. It represents a high price per foot for tunnelling—a price justified, perhaps, by post-war conditions (cost of labour and materials), and by the plenitude of strikes and scarcity of workers at that time. But since then the economic world has passed out of the hothouse and into the open air, and the letting of the Orongorongo tunnelling co-operative contract is not a precedent."

To which the co-operator will reply : "Times changej but not principles. It will always be better for the community to give co-operatives a profit that will keep them working than to give a contractor a profit that will keep them striking. A well-paid co-operative system ,is an insurance against strikes." Let the argument be left at that. There is another field of co-opevative mining worth glancing at. Consider the co-operative coal-mining parties on the West Coast.

"These parties," said a West Coast labourite yesterday, "are standing the test of competition. They have been delivering the goods in competition with private enterprise. They are working without internal friction, without' the waste of time that constitutes commun-ity-loss, and without asking the community to pay any more than the community pays under the competitive system. There was a tendency a while ago to curtail their co-operative character by allowing a co-operative party to employ permanent wages men. This reversion to the wage system has now been prevented; and the co-operative coal-mmmg parties in the West Coast retain _ then- co-operative character, wnich is the only insurance against fric-

In reply to a question as to how many men are earning a living in co-op-erative coalmining in the West Coast, tne answer was "About three hundred." : It was further stated that the coal d?P<>sits recently proved near the mouth ot the Grey, m the Taylorville district, opened up a new field for co-operative coal-mimng provided that the Government would finance the heavy initial expenditure Such expenditure could easily be secured in the asset, in such a way that the Government could not lose. Then the onus would be on the co-operative coal-miners toorganise the outputting, and to do so at a profit to themselves, and at a competitive price to the public. What you say amounts to an economic challenge to private enterprise by co-operative effort, backed by the Government capitalisation 1 Rt" V-? s.'." was the re Pl-v- "That about nts it.