WHERE IS THE COAL?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 24, 28 July 1944, Page 4

WHERE IS THE COAL?

Speaking on the Finance Bill yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland) repeated a question which many people have been asking for a long time: Where is the coal? If, as has been, asserted on several occasions by Ministers of the Crown, New Zealand miners enjoy the best conditions and the best wages in the world, why is it that so much difficulty has been experienced in producing sufficient coal to meet the essential requirements of the • country? Today restrictions on transport are necessary, gas companies and other industrial undertakings are carrying on on a hand-to-mouth basis, and householders are experiencing the greatest difficulty in obtaining anything like adequate supplies. It is little wonder that all this puzzles the public, particularly when they are told from time to time an ever-optimistic Minister of Mines .that new; records of. production

are being achieved and that the State acquisition of privately-owned collieries—at considerable cost to the taxpayer—will solve all problems. Apparently it takes much more than Mr. Webb's optimism to produce coal, and, as Mr. Holland suggested, it is high time that Parliament got to grips with the problem. The disclosures regarding short time and stop-work meetings made in a circular issued by the Glen Afton Collieries Limited, quoted by Mr. Holland, are disturbing and 'call for the fullest inquiry. The company states that if all the miners remained working until 3.30 p.m. every day, and if avoidable idle days and stop-work meetings were eliminated, there would be ample coal for the domestic trade almost immediately, and a full resumption of railway services would be possible within a few weeks. Mr. Holland's suggestion that a committee should be set. up to examine the whole position will be endorsed by a public who have become thoroughly impatient of alternate hat-raising and scolding, unaccompanied by suitable action. In his reply to the Leader of the Opposition, the Minister of Supply (Mr. Sullivan) claimed that the coal industry was mostly owned by private enterprise. It is very doubtful if this claim can be substantiated. Today there are few groups of mines which are not either owned by the State or State-controlled. But even if this were not so, Mr. Sullivan can scarcely hope to convince the public that stoppages and other troubles are confined to collieries which are privately owned. Mr. Sullivan also stated, in explanation of the present difficulty, that formerly New Zealand imported 100,000 tons of Australian coal annually, but that that could not now b*e obtained. That may be the case so far as hard coals are concerned, but has" Mr. Sullivan overlooked the fact that early in its term of office' the present Government, and the present Minister of Mines, did not look with favour on increased imports of coal or on the opening up of new areas in this country for fear that the industry would become depressed? The Government cannot escape its responsibility for the present position as easily as that. During recent years the miners have received concession after concession from the Government. The latest agreement with the State miners, and its application by the Coal Mines Council to workers in privatelyowned collieries, have added greatly to production costs, costs which must be borne by the public whether they are met by increased prices or subsidies. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the miners have been encouraged in their demands by the weak and vacillating attitude of members of the present Government. When trouble has occurred, such as the Waikato dispute, Ministers, while talking boldly, have shown a regrettable tendency to capitulate, and the result has been to encourage the miners to go a little further. The effect of capitulation is now apparent.