MAN OF THE HOUR

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1929, Page 3

MAN OF THE HOUR

AUSTRALIAN COAL CRISIS NEW SOUTH WALES TREASURER. MR. STEVENS’ GREAT TASK. Sydney, June 27. In every crisis the hour produces the man. And it is not unlikely that, in the long-drawn-out coal crisis in New South Wales, the critical hour will again brin" forth the man, in the person o the °State Treasurer, Mr. Stevens. He is the big figure behind the Government’s latest and most hopeful move to bring peace and stability once more to the great coal industry. Mr. Stevens is one of the most interesting, yet unobtrusive, figures in Australian politics. The most influential man in the New South Wales Cabinet to-day, he • won a place in it shortly after he was elected, to Parliament for the first time. A quarrel with the former Government —the Lang Labour regime—witnessed his resignation .as Under-Secretary and Director of Finance. To-<lay, from the Ctovernment benches, and as the Cabinet’s biggest drivin" force, he attacks with rapier thrust 0 in Parliament the very party with which he broke as one of its public servants when it was in power. A HERCULEAN TASK. The ■whirligig of politics, in an amazingly brief time, has brought Mr. Stevens his sweet, revenge. He won his political spurs without any apprenticeship. What is more, he is one of the most likeable and modest men in the Ministry. Mr. Stevens is an enthusiasm tic pillar of the Methodist Church. Mr. Stevens is a glutton for figures and also for work. He is frequently, at work when half of Sydney is rubbing the sleep out of its eyes, often has his midday meal served to him in his office, and very often goes back to his desk at night, in the Herculean task of trying to straighten out the State finances, to find, a w-ay out o£ the . coal trouble and to carry out his additional job as Minister of Railways. His philosophy is that there is no fun like work. It certainly agrees with him, for physically, as well as politically, he is a man of some circumstance. The aim of the Government, through the Treasurer, Mr. Stevens, is to see the miners back at work and the idle collieries again in full swing, pending the exhaustive investigation of all the ramifications of the industry by the Royal Commission which is now sitting. Whether the commission, however, will achieve the results which are hoped for is problematical. The losses in the coal industry, through almost countless stoppages, and, indirectly, to the business community geue/ally, are appalling. TREMENDOUS LOSS IN WAGES. The present crisis cannot be regarded as a strike, but, taking stoppages which can be fairly classified as strikes, they have involved a loss of wages estimated as something like £6,000,000 during the last ten years. During five years of that period about £600.000 went in strike pay. With that £6,000,000 the miners could have bought and become the owners of a considerable coal-bearing area and demonstrated their capacity to work coalmines more efficiently and profitably than they are worked under the pre: sent system. Statements that about £6,000,000 has been lost in ten years are regarded by some as a fallacy. Ft is argued, in effect, even if it is small consolation to the miners, that their loss has been somebody else’s gain; that stoppages have simply meant the transference of work from one colliery to another. But it is hard to see the logical force of that argument. One might as well argue that the total cessation of work in Australia would simply mean an increase of work somewhere else. The story of the coal industry in New South Wales is one of the most tragic chapters in Australia’s history.