One of Mr. Seddon’s most notable actions in this respect in recent years was the establishment of State coal mines. In 1901, feeling that the time had come when the State should supply cheaper coal to the people, he induced Parliament to pass his State Coal Mines Act. It allows the Government to mine coal-bearing country, first to meet its own demands for coal, and then to supply coal to the public in the ordinary way of business. The Act was in operation for several years before the Government took full advantage of its provisions by placing coal on the market. State coal is now being sold to the public in both Wellington and Christchurch from depôts established by the Mines Department. There are two mines worked by the State. They are both in the West Coast district, one being at Seddonville and the other at Point Elizabeth. Mr. Seddon’s principal argument when he was urging Parliament to allow him to establish these mines was that private enterprise was not meeting the colony’s demands for coal. By that means he disarmed those of his opponents who said of this proposal, as they had said of all others which went in the same direction, that it interfered unnecessarily with private enterprise. There had been several coal famines, in which prices rose to a high figure, and he said that this, clearly, was a case in which the Government could interfere without being blamed for going too far in the paths of advanced Socialists. Large quantities of coal were imported from Australia, the value sometimes amounting to £90,000 in one year, and he thought that that, also, should be checked.
The proposal was not a new one to Parliament, and he had little difficulty in having it passed into law. The Act gives the Government power to set up a complete coal-mining concern, with managers, engineers, agents, and other officers; to acquire buildings and plant; and, in fact, to carry on mining operations in exactly the same way as a private company would do. The Government is allowed to acquire other coal mines, taking over private businesses and fulfilling private contracts. If the profits from the State-owned mines are more than 5 per cent. the price can be reduced to the consumer. The results of the
