COAL AND RAILWAYS.

Evening Star, Issue 25325, 6 November 1944, Page 4

COAL AND RAILWAYS.

The Minister of Mines should be grateful to his colleague; the Minister of Railways, for the public testimonial which Mr Semple has been moved to give to the working of his department. To defend the coal miners against criticisms, which have been frequent, was not Mr Semple's first object. It was to defend himself against strictures, suffered or anticipated, owing to the railway inconveniences that have been forced upon the public by the difficulties of his department in getting sufficient supplies of coal. Mr Semple is peculiarly sensitive to criticism. We have not seen that either he or his department has been particularly blamed for this disability, for which neither fairly, could be made responsible, resulting in sharp inconveniences and even hardships to the public. The. New Zealand Housewives' Association, which from Auckland last week made the strongest protest against an insufficiency of coal for heating, cooking, the railways, and industry, chose more naturally to address it to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Mines. Mr Semple, however, has another reason for embarking on this exposition, since he has been subject to considerable pressure from all sides to increase jji"uay services during the holiday season* and his ability to do that must depend on' coal. The administration of a brother Minister being in question, he could hardly say upon this occasion, as on a previous one: " I have been Jet down." Rather, without preferring -actual bouquets to them like Mr Welbb and Mr Nash, he has been concerned to show that the coal miners have done quite a good job; not they, but war circumstances are to be blamed if New Zealand is short of coal. Importation has not been possible, as during the last, war; requirement for all sorts of services, including railways, has increa'sed_ largely in recent years. Whereas during last war coal production fell pretty steadily year by year, throughout this war it has steadily increased. The comparison with last war is not satisfying. Too many attendant circumstances are now vague. Possibly a larger proportion of miners were called up then. That was a first war of its scale for New Zealand, and it would be strange if some improvements could not be made in the administration of a second. Miners were subject to some influences and some examples then from which they have happliy been, free in the present test. They worked longer hours,- in harder conditions, than they do today, making periods of respite perhaps a greater necessity. It is true that most countries have had coal difficulties. A Select Committee of the House in Mr Massey's time, it is recalled, recommended that the mines should be nationalised. That advice was not followed, and if later experience has shown anyr thing it is that it would not have produced a remedy. Reflections Mr Semple makes on his critics—or the Government's criticsdo not deserve an answer. The public knows that it must bear with some disadvantages in war time, but it lias a right to know that these are not larger than war-time circumstances require them to be. It wants to know now, as the Minister acknowledges, what train services will be running during the Christmas holidays. His assurance is given

that he will say at. the first possible moment, and an early announcement certainly will be welcomed. Those who havo booked rooms far afield for a rest, after a working year that has known no wanton stoppages, find it important to know that they will be able to get to them. Auguries ought to be good since the Minister of Mines has reported that for the last quarter coal production increased by 22,000 tons compared with the same period last year "If that rate of increase continued a further record of production would be registered for tho year." But that report almost exactly synchronised with an announcement that the Strongman State mine had lost another day, through a mistaken impression that the bathhouse temperature was below standard—actually it was 12deg on the right side—and that the Millerton mine had resumed after a one-day. stoppage. Too many of these days may spoil the prpspect.