STATE ENTERPRISES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 143, 20 June 1916, Page 6

STATE ENTERPRISES.

When the Estimates come up for discussion in the House, as they probably will in the course of a week or two, members will have a good deal to say about State enterprises of various kinds and may talk more frankly than they have done on some former occasions. The competition between the Railway Department and the Tourist Department, which is costing the taxpayers a few odd thousands a year without producing any adequate results, is one subject that will be discussed, and the lack of enterprise in the State Fire Insurance Office, which seems to have grown even less progressive than the proprietary companies, is another. The State coal mines, too, are bound to come in for some measure of criticism, as they did on Wednesday from the member for Mataura; but here Mr. P. G. Webb is prepared with a reply which will appeal to many housewives however it may strike the unsympathetic taxpayer. The member for Grey claims that, the State mines already save consumers some £60,000. a year and that they would save them ten times this amount if they were developed as they should be. .When questioned upon the matter in the House yesterday Mr MacDonald said that while the private dealers had raised their prices from 5/- to 8/- a ton since the beginning of the war, the State depots had made no increase at all. It was on this statement that Mr. 'Webb based his calculations.