The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1919. MORE OF COAL AND LESS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10288, 24 May 1919, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, MAY 24, 1919. MORE OF COAL AND LESS

In New Zealand coal appears to be a kind of conglomerate. Not the conglomerate known to science, but of the conglomerate, of. varying reports made by. r a scientific .department. These reports began by bringing the coal supply of this country to the verge of infinity, and they are, after a somewhat ■irritating mix-up of theories based on measurements of the seen and the unseen and the problematic, now hovering amongst periods of from forty-five year?.to a century. There is added a fleeting glimpse of a vista beyond the longer limit, unintentionally for the benefit of optimists partial to the opiates of baseless theories of voluble speech. After a perusal of this conglomerate, what are we to believe? The question is important, beoause of the pressure of several applications for the construction of, railways to coalfields of a richness guaranteed by honourable men with the help of "scraps of paper." What guarantee, one wonders, is there that before the due date of the necessary loan flotations there -will be neither interest nor sinking fund, nor coal? If we turn from the hard conglomerates to fact, we find the substance for meditation even harder. Evidence has been given recently by a high official that the shortage of coal—a very prominent fact indeed, in the situation outside the conglomerate—is due largely, if not solely, to the- dearth fo expert miners. A miner, it 'appears, is a product of heredity. To be made a miner a man must be born in the mining class. For such a one the darkness and dangers of subterranean work have no terrors. Against them his heredity is a powerful buffer, elastic with optimism. Heredity attracts him, moreover, to the habit of working in cramped positions abhorred toy the average human. Heredity, in fact, helps him to such work by the peculiar fashion in which it has formed his limlbs, and the easy adjustability it has given to his nerves. So qualified, such a man enjoys ' his daily labour in the bowels of the earth, undisturbed by strange noises, mysterious rumblings, and the prospect not by any means visionary of sudden death. And when he gets back to the pure air above the earth, he is not discontented by insanitary surroundings such as kill people not hardened by heredity and experience of the underworld of the conglomerate. For those without the advantage of this hardened temperament, there is no possible inducement powerful enough to get them to look at the i conglomerate region, much less to work. Even high wages appear in cases to act with deterrent effect. Could this theory, of subterranean work be successfully applied to the realms of undersea darkness, the difficult problems of ending submarine operations in -war could be solved in a single generation. But this is another story. Returning to tho subterranean, and the conglomerate, it appears that there are not enough miners here to work the abundant coal, and that miners cannot be obtained from elsewhere. When, therefore, these railways are made to the ' rich mines it will be necessary to rely on heredity for the miners to find the interest and sinking fund charges and satisfy the fuel hunger of the people. The prospect is not absolutely pleasing. More especially -is it is imnossiblo to say, when heredity has produced the miners, exactly what the miners will do when thev come into contact with the owners, oven if bv that time the promise? of better livincr conditions have been fulfilled. Will the

mine owners fall into the worst capitalistic vices? Will the miners show a. preference for Bolshevism or [.WAV. tenets? Will the Government, fully armed with powers—as surely it must bo by that time—be more powerless than ever? The bare mention of possibilities is disquieting—a miner hereditary caste, unreflecting capitalism, a weak Government. We do not like to dogmatise: we do not like to prophesy ; we do not even like to discuss. All we care to hazard is a. firm belief that whatever happens the selfreliant people of this Dominion will worry through somehow. In the meantime one thins is certain. White coal is .-just now n. better investment than black.