As we have explained in a leading article, we much
regret that the GovernMent have not kept to the Report, and nothing but the Report, as we fear that wIet the French call a situation netts has been sacrificed. Ap- parently the Cabinet fOtind it impossible to agree upon the purchase Of ioyelfieS- owing to the -financial- depression; and when one point in the Report went it was only too easy for others to go with it. All the same, it does not follow, as some critics assume, that without the purchase of royalties it would be impossible for the Government to have an ultimate control over the industry. The railways were brought under control without any kind of purchase. The Government can really present rather a seductive argument when they say that the nation is being saved the financial burden of purchase while the miners, through the welfare levy, get something out of the royalties.
