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Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1919, Page 2

At a gathering in London, presided over by Sir Edward Ward, the coal owners' case .in relation t-o the question of the nationalisation of /coal mines was dealt with by Air Wallace Thorneycroft and Sir Adam Nimmo (President of the Association of Alining Engineers). Air Thorueycroft said lie looked eagerly and anxiously for a scheme of nationalisation which would show some sign of safe-guarding our export trade. He had seen many schemes on the subject of nationalisation, and the only point upon which they agreed was in sedulously ignoring the export trade. If the export trade were cut off or reduced, home prices for coal must rise the prices of imported food and raw material must rise, and the foreign exchanges must move against this country. Surely tho rpal way to judge the existing system was to* compare it with what was done in normal times of peace hitherto and not on the basis of the abnormal incidents of war. Tile pre-war history of the industry, when brought out by their evidence, would he no mean record. It showed steady increase in output to meet the national demand for fuel; increased safety in I mines; an elaborate system of collective I bargaining and conciliation boards; an elaborate code of public law for regulating the working of mines; the application of science in every direction to protect life and to Increase production; and the application of the enterprise and capital on the terms that if the adventure ended in loss the investor bore it, and if" it ended in gain, the community took its toll by taxation. Finally, it showed a return on the capital invested which as Dr Stamp pointed out before the Commission, was strikingly smaller than that wliich many industries expected and obtained,

Lord Milner, in an address at the Imperial Institute: “I think tho Government ought to give a great deal • more help and guidance in the matter of emigration than it has done in the past, v, I admit that that means spending a certain amount of money in this ■ direction. It might he only a drop in the ocean of our national expenditure now, but certainly it would be means of showing in a practical way that all our professions on the subject or rather more than pretty phrases. I know there is a great deal of prejudice in some quarters against the Govenment assisting emigration. It is said that we have no business to stimulate emigration. That iis a complete misapprehension of tho position. There is no question here of stimulation at all. I am the last person in the world to try and drive men or women out of this country.We don’t want to do it, and we don’t need t-o do it. I am satisfied that our resources are sufficient to provide employment for everybody except the hopelesly incompetent or the vicious, and to provide them with such remuneration as shall ensure to them a decent standard of living. If we fail to do so it will he because we have muddled tho business. There always has been, and I think there always will be a steady flow from this country to the new lands of the Empire of men and women who want to go there, and well fitted, will do well in the new countries, and in that way really help the Old Country, although in an indirect manner. ;It- is our great wish that the men and women who thus leave us should devote, their energies and abilities to building up new homes under the British flag. If they are to be lost to us they must not he lost to the British Empire.”