THE COAL SUPPLIES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2123, 15 May 1922, Page 4

THE COAL SUPPLIES.

The Prime. Minister stated at Feilding last week that the Dominion had an asset valued at £450,000 in imported coal. The importations had been made, he said, as an insurance against the railways being held up. It is questionable, indeed, whether the policy adopted is a sound one. If it is sound, then it should have been applied also to wheat. When the Government was threatened Avith a strike of Avheat-groAvers, it immediately surrendered, and offered the Canterbury farmers a price that resulted in a heavy loss to the country. Had it adopted tho same attitude in respect to Avheat as it adopted in respect to coal, it Avould have imported Avlieat to the value of about £1,000,000. But it preferred to compromise Avith the AvfVat-gTowcr and to defy the coal-miner. The proper course for Mr Massey to have adopted in respect to the coal-mines, Avas to have imported miners, and not coal. He Avould then have been in a position to build up a reserve from our oavu abundant resources. The taxpayers are paying dearly for the bungling and., lack of vision of those Avho control the affairs of the Dominion. There Avas no justification Avhatever for subsidising the wheat-groAvers and butter-producers, and still less excuse for importing huge supplies of coal at an enormous cost to the country.