The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1948. NATIONALISATION OF COAL MEASURES

Grey River Argus, 6 August 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, AUGUS T 6, 1948. NATIONALISATION OF COAL MEASURES

THE principle of public owner- ± ship, which in so many other instances has in very many countries come this century to be applied, is one which might with even greater justification have been applied in every country to the coal wealth sooner than to any other. It is over forty years since it began to be recognised in New Zealand. In view of developments since then, the legislation now proposed by the Government to make all of the coal deposits public property has been inevitable. In the first place, while private enterprise doubtless was the natural mode of commencing the exploitation of deposits, the ownership of these should never have been alienated from the State, the reason probably having been that their vital importance had not originally been foreseen, although the presence of coal was not to be attributed to those holding the land which contained it. As it was, the exploitation of coal used to be the most notorious example of the exploitation of labour. It may not have been so in flic newer countries, but modern industrialism has been so dependent on coal that the policy of the capitalists has always been to keep the costs of production at the lowest level. In New Zealand the most inimical feature of the industry has been waste of the .comparatively limited supply, and it is as much as anything, to stop such waste that the State gradually has come to take over mines, and is now taking over all of the deposits. As a gift of nature, the coal measures arje in a different category from the coal mines, which have entailed capital outlay. Consequently, while the Government is lo compensate the private owners of land containing coal, the payment will not be on so large a scale as that for the capital laid out in the development of the collieries taken over by the State: Nor need the Crown’s resumption entail any restriction of the rights of mining coal, provided always that it is so produced as to obtain the maximum output from each deposit. To be bought by the State there remain only eight mines of any dimensions —five in the Waikato which in war-time came under State control; a couple in the south, and one in Buller. Precedents as to prices have been set by other State purchases, and the Coal Valuation Commission being set up under the Bill will in due course reach an appropriate figure in each of these instances. The more important feature of the legislation is the principle that all coal measures are to be resumed by the Crown, even should it not involve as great an expenditure on the undeveloped seams as for those which are being worked, or, rather, on the equipment for working them. There may be comparatively few instances of icoal-bearing areas being held as a speculation, but that such lands have largely been held with an eye to a speculative advance in value in various countries is a fact of history. Nowadays the commodity itself is appreciating in value very markedly, and that fact puts a high premium on the policy of conservation, because deposits, though their extent might not be fully ascertainable, are nevertheless fixed in quantity. Bearing in mind how private enterprise hitherto has been able, at a peppercorn royalty, to exploit these natural resources, the transfers of equipment and any other capital equivalent to the State with due compensation is a fair and square deal. As for the undeveloped measures in privately owned areas, while there will be compensation, the recipients will retain all other values except that of coal. Development, moreover, by the State in such cases must be expected to prove speedier and more adequate, as well as economical, than were the private land holders to be left to undertake it. So much has on the West Coast been demonstrated, not only by the original State coal enterprise, but by the transfer of operations from private to public enterprise in most of the other instances. Indeed, it may reasonably he claimed that it has been the West Coast which has successfully pioneered the State coal mining policy, on which today consumers arc more disposed to rely alike for quality and quantity, than upon competitors. Credit is due, of course, to the corporations which inaugurated collieries in early days, but the teaching of experience is that from the national standpoint the utilisation of this national endowment is best fostered by public control.