Why is course (_b_) recommended? (i) Most leases are granted for terms
varying from thirty to sixty years. They are falling in year by year,
but we cannot afford to wait until they have all fallen in if we are
effectively to deal with a pressing problem. (ii) The second objection
to merely waiting is that some colliery-owners (not many) might make up
their minds not to apply for a renewal of their leases, and might
consequently be tempted to neglect the necessary development and
maintenance work, over-concentrating on output, and thus allowing the
colliery to get into a backward state from which it would cost much time
and money to recover it--a state of affairs which could and would be
provided against in future leases, but which the framers of existing
leases may not have visualised. I do not suggest that upon the
acquisition by the State of the minerals all the existing leases should
automatically determine. But the State should have power to determine
them on payment of compensation for disturbance.
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