The Coal Commission, having ended the second stage of its
roving inquiry, presented four Reports, which were published on Monday. The thirteen Commissioners agreed that the State should acquire the coal royalties ; all but the three miners' delegates agreed that the State should compensate the royalty- owners for the loss of their property. In regard to the proposed nationalization of the collieries the Commissioners failed to agree, but they all expressed the opinion that miners' repre- sentatives should be associated more closely with the actual working of the coal-pits in Local and District Committees under a Minister of Mines. If Mr. Smillie and his associates were not thinking more of Syndicalist theories than of the welfare of the miners and the community, they might have co-operated with the Chairman, the coal-owners' representatives, and the three independent members in drafting a workable scheme for the coal industry. But their aim, we fear, is not industrial peace.
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