BRITISH MINING BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20482, 6 February 1930, Page 10

BRITISH MINING BILL.

By arrangement between the British Government and the Liberal Party, the Coal Mines Bill, which has been on the stocks since early in December, will proceed in a different form from that in which it was introduced. The first part, that dealing with the marketing of coal, 1 will be postponed until the rest of the bill has been disposed of, that is until the miners have been granted <4, working day of 7-i hours, and a Coal Mines National Industrial Board has been established. This means, putting jt bluntly, that with the support of the Liberals the Government will be able to meet the demands of the miners, which were conceded in the latter half of the bill, and will leave entirely undecided any measures to compensate the mineowners for that increase in the cost of production which must follow a curtailed working day. The President of the Board of Trade says the Government attaches great importance to part one of the bill. If it is being merely postponed to satisfy Liberal opposition, what guarantee can there be that it will be regarded with any more favour when the other provisions have been safely steered through committee 1 The marketing scheme has been very severely criticised, and on its bare text is open to serious objection. Its purpose, in whatever terms it may be described, is to allow of associations to regulate the output and the marketing of coal. If that does not mean a system by which the price can be raised, then it has no meaning whatever, becoming simply the provision of elaborate machinery, which must cost something, for no ascertainable return. There is also a clause commonly understood to provide for a levy on coal used for home consumption, which will be used to assist in marketing export coal, and perhaps to supply the iron and steel industries with cheaper fuel. ,On such an interpretation, it is easily understood that this section of the bill has been strongly attacked. It is, none the less, the only' thing offered the mineowners, as already said, in return for what they are being called upon to concede to the miners. Unless something is done for them — and the Government is obviously without means of deciding what that something should be—they cannot be forced to continue working their mines under what they declare to be unprofitable conditions. The Government is drifting into an exceedingly difficult position over its mining legislation. It seems merely to be postponing its difficulties as it postpones considering the first part of the Coal Mines Bill.