NATIONALISATION OF COALMINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19846, 20 July 1926, Page 8

NATIONALISATION OF COALMINES.

By the indulgence of the House of Representative's, the Leader of the Opposition was afforded an opportunity last week of explaining the provisions of the Nationalisation of Coal-mines Bill, which he had introduced, although upon technical grounds the measure was not one that could be allowed to proceed to a second reading. It was proposed by the Bill to set up a Mining Council which should be empowered to take over, in behalf of the State, such coal-mines as it might decide to acquire, paying for them with Treasury bonds. It was also provided „ that a Mines Valuation Board, for the purpose of making a valuation of all mines, should be created, and that there should be District Mining Councils and District Fuel-consumers’ Councils, whose duties should be to advise the Mining Council, but the salient feature of the Bill was that under which coal-mines might be acquired by the State and, when acquired, be controlled by the Mining Council. Presumably the Bill was to be regarded as a specimen of the legislation which the Opposition would bring forward if, by some political accident, it found itself the occupant of the Ministerial benches. As a party, its objective is the socialisation of the coalmines as well as of the other means of production in the country. The proposals contained in this particular Bill fell, however, a long way short of any such idea as this. If they had been carried, they would not have effected the nationalisation of the coal-mines. They would simply have authorised the Mining Council to pick and choose among the coal-mines -of New Zealand and to acquire such one or more of them as might be considered desirable, leaving the others to the control of the capitalists, against whom, in the cant phraseology of the extremists, labour should wage an unending war. To say of proposals of this character that they provide for the nationalisation of the coal-mines is to make a wrong use of terms. The adoption of the policy outlined in Mr Holland’s Bill would merely have involved an extension of the system of community-ownership, wjbich is already recognised in the existence of State coal-mines on the West Coast. But, under this arrangement, Mr Holland declares that it would be possible, for once and for all, to get away from the anomaly of importing coal into a country which was essentially coalproducing. Unfortunately, the reports of his speech that have been published do not show in what way he attempted to develop this contention. One passage, however, suggests the line of argument which he adopted. “We claim,’’ he said, “that if the knowledge of the practical miner and his capacity for organisation are brought into application with the theoretical knowledge of the scientist and the expert, the coalmines of this country could be far more efficiently administered than they are at present, and could produce coal much more cheaply.” The knowledge of the practical miner must certainly be valuable, whatever may be said of his capacity for organisation, but it is a somewhat large assumption which Mr Holland builds on the effect of the use that would be made of those assets in the management of coal-mines controlled by a Mining Council. In any case, however, it has not yet been demonstrated that the administration of the coal-mines of the country under private enterprise is inefficient, and there is a well-defined opinion as to one explanation of the high cost of production of coal.