AUSTRALIAN COAL

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 125, 24 February 1928, Page 10

AUSTRALIAN COAL

DECISION OF CONTRACTORS OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW ZEALAND SHIPS PREMIER ON UTILISATION POLICY If prices can be arranged, New Zealand ships are to have the opportunity of carrying the coal which is to be supplied from Australia under the recent contract let by the New Zealand Government Railways Department. This decision of the contractors was placed by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates) before a deputation which waited on him yesterday in connection with unemployment among the ranks of seamen, cooks, and stewards, and others who follow the sea as a livelihood. It has been contended by the deputation that unemployment would be accentuated through carriage of coal by Australian ships. Had a New Zealand company obtained the trade, it was stated, at least two vessels carrying ■lOOO tons would have been employed for a period of about nine months, it being understood that 75,000 tons of coal were to be supplied. Some 88 men would also be absorbed. A Definite Policy. “It is the defined and definite policy of the Government,” said the Prime Minister in the course of his reply, “to utilise coal in the country. That will not fit in with your ideas as far as your employment is concerned, but from a strictly national point of view everyone must agree that if we have in our own country a product that can be utilised, and that is equal economically to what can be imported, we should endeavour to develop it. “I notice a wide difference in the figures that have been given in connection with the recent contract. Mr. Holland takes me to task for letting a contract to Australia for 150,000 tons of coal. That is incorrect. There is no such contract. It is imagination, and it has run quite wild! A member of the deputation mentions 75,000 tons as the figure. His imagination is not so vivid; he gets half-way there. The figure actually is 37,500 tons. Mr. P. Fraser, M.P.: It is going to be some more 1 The Prime Minister: I don’t know, and neither does Mr. Fraser. I am screwing them, right down to what I think is the minimum at which we can work. We inav have to get some more; no doubt some more will come in. Touching the general question of letting contracts the Prime Minister said that the Government had never adopted the policy of making a contract for any one person. Tenders were not called for fun, and not one member of the deputation would let pass one opportunity of protesting if the Government let a contract for a high figure when it was known the work could be done for less. A voice: It is not good politics. The Prime Minister: It is pretty dangerous if you get away from that principle. Our duty is to the public of New Zealand as a whole. If I accepted a tender for £1 ss. when there was another one for £l, I would know all about it, and quite rightly too. Contractors’ Offer. Reverting to the coal contract, the Prime Minister stated that the Government had taken up the matter immediately it was pointed out that a ship or two might be taken off the trade on account of the contract that had been made, and an intimation had been given that New Zealand ships should be used if it were possible. The contractors for the coal had since intimated their willingness to give New Zealand the opportunity of carrying the coal if prices could be arranged. Speaking again later the Prime Minister said that Mr. Holland did not want coal to come from Australia. Mr. Fraser said that the seamen had been patient. They could have put up the case that if the miners were getting more employment they were getting less.