COAL BILL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 306, 25 November 1937, Page 11

COAL BILL

UNIFICATION OF ROYALTIES. SIGNIFICANCE EMPHASISED. ONE CONTROLLING BODY^ fUnited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received November 25, 10.32 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 24. The Coal .Bill was to-day read the second time in the House of Commons and passed by 301 votes to 139. Sir John Simon, Home Secretary, emphasised the significance of the unification iof royalties—the transference to one public body of the control of management hitherto divided among 4000 people. Defending the scheme of compensation for which the Bill provides, he said the plan as it stood was the greatest measure of compulsory expropriation of private property which Parliament had ever been asked to sanction. After the unification all savings and profits made over royalties would return to tho industry, not into the Exchequer. As the loans for purchase were paid off, more and more would be available for the industry to level and reduce the royalty rates. As the miners’ wages were calculated on the sum left after the royalty payments, they would directly benefit.