A STATE COALMINE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4303, 12 March 1901, Page 4

A STATE COALMINE

It is not the first, time the question! of opening a coalmine under State auspices has boten raised in this country. During last session of Parliament a groat deal of attention was drawn to it. We heard much then of coal famines in the midst of teeming coal. That was also the burden of the Premier’s speech to the deputation on Saturday last; a speech, by the way, in which Mr Seddon has, tn behalf of the Government, gone farther than any speaker with responsibility on his shouldelrs has ever gone before. The deputation took a practical view of a great subject, but so restricted that it may be said to have contributed nothing more to the study of it than the timeworn truth that there is a. great demand for coal in New Zealand. In enlarging thd scope of the subject, the Premier took that imperfect statement as his text. This is a country, he said, teeming with “black diamonds,” and coal is extravagantly dear nevertheless. This is not for want of Government and other public assistance. We have! light royalties, hundreds of thousands of pounds sunk in' improving the two coal harbours of the colony, a geological department ready to examine into and report upon anything and everything mineable, and doing it with both enterprise and discretion—yet the whole volume of the coal trade of this colony is the blush spot of our annual - trade statistics. It is quite too late in the day to contend that coal production is no business of the State. There is nothing more “absurd” in the community working its own mines than there is in it running ,ts own railways or providing itself with gas and water. Good old “private enterprise” has no reason to complain of un- . due interference in the coal business. 1 It has had a long monopoly of that field, ■ with results disastrous to itself during a i long course of years, Much capital has , been lost, and despite the high price of ' coal, the companies do not yet make a docent profit. Meanwhile a great na- i tional asset is undeveloped. The best 1 steam coal in the world is hardly known ' or used outside of this country, which', produces it, and the vast stores of excel-L

lent household coal are only available to. our own people! at almost. prohibitive prices. These results are no doubt chiefly due to lack of sufficient capital, and in some degree also to a plentiful lack of knowledge. Now, the State alone can command capital in quantity large enough for prolonged search, on terms compatible with the minimum of profit, under the best scientific and practical guidance the world can supply Having reached this bedrock of conviction, the Premier has logically announced the intention of the Government to ask Parliament to sanction the policy of “running’’ a State coalmine. The only logical alternative is to shut up every coalmine on the ‘‘Coast” and pay compensation to anybody who can make out a case for it—according to the Vogel precedent of the distilleries in the earlier “seventies.” But logic happens in this case to be sounder on, paper than in practice, for the simple reason that the only dependable supply in Australasia is proving itself daily less and less to be depended upon. The leading features of the situation, from the New Zealand point of view are (1) that this is a country teeming with coal, (2) that vast sums of public inoney have. been almost fruitlessly spent to make this treasure profitable to the people who own it, (3) that the State alone not only lias the desire to act for the public benefit, but also possesses the command of the necessary means and of scientifically practical knowledge. The most satisfactory point in the position, the beneficial climax in fact, is that the State has determined to make a beginning of its manifest duty in the matter. The community lias shown that it can manage great depart-, inents of service, railways, post offices, coast lighting, military equipment, tramways, forests, waterworks, the regulation of many important lines of export, the salvation of a vast banking business on purely business lines, the settlement of the public lands .on the host terms if landlord and tenant aver known in' the world’s history, the acquisition .of private lands and their closer settlement on a high basis of cost, the settlement of industrial disputes on economic dines, to. say nothing of other things too numerous to mention. Therefore, there is no, reason to suppose that the working of a single coalmine will pr.ove beyond tne State’s grasp. Mr Samuel Brown—shrewdly patriotic though lid is on most matters of public concern—shows the customary limitations of mankind when dealing with matters affecting his own immediate interests. His objections to Government coal-dealing are those that Jiave always been urged by every interest whenever private profit was threatened by‘ettmmunity control. Starting with i preconceived idea of the excellence of “private- enterprise,” he easily reaches the conclusion that Government coalmining would mean incompetence, fat billets, corruption.,, heavy loss and general confusion. Such pessimistic forebodings have been so often and so emphatically belied by the success of State ventures in New Zealand that they need not deter from further experimenting. The other considerations advanced by Messrs Gasquoine, Thompson, and Brown in the interview reported in this issue have a certain pertinence, as hearing on the high price of coal, huh they in no way amount to an argument against State coalmining. If no stronger reasons can he brought than those stated, we may expect Parliament to give a prompt endors,ement to the Ministerial proposals dor working a coalmine to supply the outside' market as well as the needs of the Government for its own services. : -