The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1929. BRITISH COAL BILL.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1929. BRITISH COAL BILL.

The British Government has a difficult domestic task set to pilot the Coal Mines Bill through committee in the House of Commons. The second reading was carried by a majority of eight votes only. It is the first bill of importance following the pensions measure, in the policy of the party dealing with domestic affairs. Both the Liberals and the Conservatives Tiave their own panaceas lor dealing with the very complex position regarding the coal mining industry at IJotfie, and neither approve the Government measure in the form submitted to Parliament. It would be possible for the two parties to combine and defeat the bill straight out, but it is not the desire to oust the Government at present, so thatthe contingency of actual defeat is not aliogetlier present. The Government is realising the difficulties of the situation, and it has been given out that it is prepared to make substantial eoncessions, and probably in the end the bill will pass the Commons in a shorn condition, but if not shorn its fate would probably be sealed in the House of Lords. The principal feature of the Bill is the proposal to “regulate the production, supply and sale” of coal by means of “concentration schemes” to be operated by tlie colliery owners and controlled by the State. The idea behind this project is that “within reasonable limits the quantity of coal offered lor sale by anv colliery, and the price charged for it, shall be in accord with tin l state of the current demand.” Even this brief summary of the Bill should give some idea of the opportunities which it offers for criticism and attack. For it involves in part a form of State control over the mine-owners, it implies “interference” in the market for the regulation of prices, and it necessitates some degree of State aid l>v wav of subsidy on exports, to enable the British coal producers to compete

abroad with their foreign rivals. So far as the workers are concerned, the Bill does not go so far as they wish in the way of State control or the reduction of hours. Yfit even Mr A. J. Cook has advised the miners to make tne best of it, and lie content for the moment with what they can get. On the other hand, the Liberal Press is most outspoken in its condemnation, 'the “Daily News” has appealed to Mr MacDonald to withdraw the .Bill, and the “Daily Chronicle” has assailed it bitterly on the ground that it would create a dangerous capitalistic monopoly which “would hold the whole community to ransom by charging what it likes for coal.” Perhaps the most effective criticism of the Bill is contained in Mr Lloyd George’s telling indictment, that “it gives a vested interest to inefficient pits, subsidises coal supplied to competing foreign manufacturers and increases the price to British industries and consumers.” In face of this, Ministers can only plead that something must be done in the way' of reorganisation and State control. and that this is as far as they can go at present. But the Conservatives and the Liberals are moving independent resolutions involving the rejection of the Bill, and though they are not likely to join hands to defeat the Government, and thereby force on another election which nobody wants, they will probably be able to tear it to nieces in Committee so effectively as to compel .its possible withdrawal.