COAL NATIONALISATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27505, 27 September 1950, Page 7

COAL NATIONALISATION

Defended By Former Minister

PA WELLINGTON, Sept. 26. The fact that £1,527,000,000 had been claimed as compensation for the State’s acquisition of one coal holding which had not yet produced a single ton of coal was revealed in the House of Representatives today by Mr A. McLagan (Oppn., Riccarton). He was speaking to the report of Goldfields and Mines Committee which had considered the Coal Mines Amendment Bill. Mr H. Johnstone (Govt., Raglan) said the committee recommended that the Bill be allowed to proceed with one minor amendment. The Bill was divided into two parts. That portion returning coal measures to private ownership was contentious and was passed without amendment on a majority vote. The committee agreed, however, that the second part of the Bill was to the advantage, of the industry, and only one minor amendment had been proposed. Mr McLagan said the Bill would hand back to private ownership a national asset which the Onposition thought should remain in public hands. Much coal had been lost in the past through careless working under private ownership, and when the Labour Government had continued working mines which private enterprise had abandoned, it was criticised for doing so. To hand the coal back to private owners was a repetition of the error of earlier days when no steps were taken to vest mineral resources in the Crown. There was contradiction in the Bill itself, for while it gave the coal back to private owners it provided that if any Crown land were alienated the coal should remain Crown property. The Government was out-Torying the British Tories, who had said they would not return the now nationalised coal-mining industry to private hands. . Mr McLagan said the committee had obtained some very interesting figure® on the cost of nationalising coal under the Labour Government’s 1948 Act The high sum claimed in, compensation —more than £1,548.000,000 —had been cited as a reason why nationalisation was impractical, but the committee found that no less than £1,527,000,000 was claimed in respect of one holding alone—a holding which had not produced one single ton of coal to date. No responsible valuation would calculate the value of this coal holding at more than an insignificant proportion of the amount claimed. This holding had been offered for sale in the past, including an offer to the Massey Government 30 years ago, but the Massey Government had too much sense to buy it. This claim was ridiculously inflated, even though the area of land involved was some thousands of acres, and apart from this one ridiculous claim it could not be said that the cost of nationalising the coal resources would have been excessive.

The committee’s report was adopted.