STATE COAL POLICY

Grey River Argus, 12 October 1944, Page 3

STATE COAL POLICY

SUBSIDY & SUPPLY Debated in House P.A. WELLINGTON, October 11 The House to-night considered the vote of £122,592 for the Mines Department, and £1,776,320 for the State Coal Mines Department. Mr J. T. Watts (Nat., Riccarton) asked: Why was it that operations of State coal mines showed a loss of £939,000 for the past year, as compared with a profit of £4OOO the year before that. This loss, he said, was a figure that he arrived at, after including subsidies from the War Expenses Account.

Mr W. M. C. Denham (Govt., Invercargill) said the time had' come when the Government should take entire control of all mines-. Under private enterprise, mining was quite unsatisfactory. Several mines had failed, and had- closed down, in spite of State subsidies being paid to the companies to enable them to rehabilitate themselves.

Mr A. S. Richards (Govt., Roskill) salad that, while there was a loss, in figures, for the past year, coal was one of the services for the public of an importance out of all relationship to other commodities. Substantial sums had been spent for the dcVeloning of coal seams and of surface coal deposits. This, he pointed out, had not been the case in the previous year, when the het profit resulted.

Hon. P. C. Webb said that the losses referred to were due to the high subsidies that had to be paid to counteract the increased costs on almost everything that was used in the mining industry. Some of the coal mine owners had claimed that the increased costs should be met by an increase in the price of coal,, but he had not agreed to that, and the price of coal had gone up by only a few shillings a ton, although the increase in the price of coal in Britain had been 21s per ton. He believed that, when the whole matter was settled, the State mines would show profits that would balance th e subsidies.

Mr Clyde Carr (Govt., Timaru; said that all of the mines should be taken over by the State, if only on humanitarian grounds. Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Nat., Waitomo) suggested that the greatest drawback to mining, the lack of sunlight for the miners, might be counteracted, to some extent, by violet ray treatment for the miners. Hon. R. Semple said that the problems of coal production were not new, and they were all man-made. The coal mines of the country had been “butchered” to make orofits for shareholders.

Mr Webb said that, while it was possible to produce from open cast area's in the North Island sufficient coal to meet all the North Island demands, including the railways, and likewise to produce from Stockton more coal than was now coming from all of the West Coast mines, it was not the Government’s policy to do that. The open cast mining would be used Jo overcome the shortage, and to balance the distribution, but not to undersell the private mines, which the Government wanted to be kept in full production. Mr S. G. Holland (Nat., Christchurch North) said his own criticism was that there had been too many stop-work meetings. Ministers themselves had expressed agreement with that view. He would like to see a committee of six members of the House, forgetting that they were Na-tional-or Labour, get together to nroduce a scheme which would provide coal for housewives who needed if to cook hot meals for their children. The miners had done well, but they should b e told that, if they could produce more, it would be worth their while. The problem was not one of private or State enterprise, but of more coal. He believed that if, the miners could be offered some scheme of premium bonuses or profit-sharing, they would respond with still better production to enable the country’s of coal to be overcome.