SOONER MINES ARE NATIONALISED THE BETTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 167, 20 July 1946, Page 5

SOONER MINES ARE NATIONALISED THE BETTER

VIEW OF HON. A. McLAGAN (P.A.) Parliament Bldgs., July 19

The sooner the mines were nationalised the better, said the Leader of the Legislative Council, Hon. A. McLagan, speaking in the Address-in-Reply debate in the Council this afternoon. When that was done he said, the industry could be planned and developed in the interests of the country as a whole. There had been a certain amount of acquisition of mines in recent years, and the principal motive for the acquisition had been to produce more coal and keep the mines in production. Discussing suggestions made by the Hon. T. O. Bishop, that the price of coal should have been allowed to rise by a commensurate amount rather than pay subsidies, Mr. McLagan said that would mean rises in transport, retail prices, and cost of living, with a possibility of increased wages to meet it, and generally would have meant New Zealand would have paid more more than 13,000,000 extra instead of £900,000, or £1,000,000 in subsidies. The outstanding defect in private ownership of mines was that development work was never done satisfactorily, and millions of tons of coal had been lost that could never be replaced. Mr. McLagan said there were many instances of the Press not giving the public the real explanation of the mine hold-ups. Newspapers never failed Io feature stoppages, but never gave the men credit for the work they did. Their overtime work and Saturday work for production of coal did not get any headlines.