STATE COAL MINES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1713, 17 May 1917, Page 2

STATE COAL MINES.

PROM a political point of view we can hardly expect the Government to relinquish its control of the State mine, no matter how tempting the, offer (states the Farmers’ Union Advocate in its editorial columns). It is considered to be a paying proposition so far as votes go, and the Government, though if is a National Government, can always use it as a hustings cry, to gull the people into the .belief that without the State’s control the price of coal might rise enormously, just as the price of butter was said to be going to reach 2s 6d per lb., had the Government not come to the people’s rescue. Yet it is a fact that coal costs more to produce and sells at a higher price simply because the State coal miners control the State in the management of the mines. The Federation of Labour has given a pretty good indication of what the State mine means to them in the propagation of their socialistic schemes.

. . . As we previously remarked, the Government is not likely to accept the invitation to hand the State mines over to private enterprise, but the offer should stand the

Government in good stead when its employees seek to use the mine as a lever to force the State to do their bidding. 'A standing offer of the kind would have a very wholesome effect. It the public were allowed to know the truth about the real cost to the country of State coal trade it would not be long before the whole business would be handed over to the highest bidder.