THE COAL REPORT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 235, 30 June 1919, Page 6

THE COAL REPORT

VIEWS OF A LABOUR M.P. ' ,

Some reference to the report of the Board of Trade on the coal industry was made by Mr. P. Eraser, M.P.,;in his address at the Alexandra Hall last night.

Mr. Eraser was speaking about Slate and municipal enterprises v as being steps towards Socialism, but he declared that our State enterprises were mere pretence and not at all the real thing. As for the proposal made that the. State should take over the coal mines and pay fsi them by giving stock, with a guaranteed interest rate, and a risk rate, and possibly bonuses to the stockholders, -he would have none of it. He traversed some of the figures in the'report, making most of those relating to the one company which lias paid ten per cent, dividends for seventeen years, and on these figures he sought to discredit the declaration of the Board of Trade that no undue profits were being made in the industry. He was sure all the companies which were not paying would rush the offer of the Government to relieve them of theii' unnrofitable investments. . Possibly, even probably, the scheme, as outlined, would be accepted by the Government, and an attempt would. be made to £et Parliamentary sanction for it. He said it would be the duty of all the Labour members in the House to -oppose any such proposal. The only solution of the problem would be the acquisition by the State of the whole industry. In the present state of things it would probably be necessary to pay compensation to the present owners of the properties. What was required, he said, was Labour control of the industry in the interests of all classes of the community. '