It will be remembered that the Bill provides for marketing,
the reduction of hours from eight to seven and a half, and a National Wages Board. The Central Marketing Council will control twenty-one district marketing schemes and allocate a quota of production to each district. Later the marketing schemes will pass into the hands of the Board of Trade, but the Central Council, composed of coalowners, will be enabled to impose levies to pay for the marketing schemes. The Central Council may also impose levies in aid of exported coal and of the sale of coal at home to industries which are in need of special treatment. The National Wages Board will deal not only with wages but with the general conditions of labour. It will correspond to the Railway Board. Mr. Graham explained that it was part of his policy of conciliation to let the coalowners create their own marketing machinery, though he himself would have preferred that the marketing districts should be reduced at once to four or five.
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