recommended nationalization of the industry; report (3) acquisition of royalties by the State, the continuance of private enterprise coupled with the establishment of Pit Committees representative of management and miners, and District Councils and a National Council representative of coal-owners and miners—for the purpose of discussing working conditions and other questions in the settlement of which both parties are interested; report (4) recommended State acquisition of royalties, the district unification of colliery interests to be worked through District Coal Boards, on which the workers would have some representation, with a Pit Committee at each mine. Each of the four Reports recommended the setting up of a Mines Department. The Mining Industry Act, 1920 The Government announced, in August 1919, that they could not accept the policy of nationalization, but intimated their readiness to apply the Duckham scheme, but the owners and the miners objected to this. Subsequently, the Government put forward a scheme which was ultimately incorporated in the Mining Industry Act, 1920, providing a compromise mainly on the principles of Report (3)—that of the representatives on the Commission of the coal-owners and employers in other industries. This provided for (1) regulation, for a period not exceeding one year from August 31, 1920, of the export of coal, and of the pit-head price of home coal and bunker coal for coastwise shipping; (2) the future ordering of the industry on a permanent basis, by the co-ordination of all the Government’s powers and duties in regard to mines and minerals in the hands of a single Department—the Mines Department of the Board of Trade created by the Act; (3) the grant to the mine-workers of a greater voice in the ordering of the industry by means of representation on Pit and District Committees and Area and National Boards, and (4) the constitution of a fund to be applied for purposes connected with the social well-being, recreation and conditions of living of workers in or about the mines and for research and mining education. The Government also decided that the control of the coal industry, which had been essential as a war-measure, should be removed as soon as export prices fell to something approximating to the inland price. A start was made, in June 1920, in the direction of freeing the distribution of inland coal from restriction by placing it in the hands of local committees of the coal trade. The Strike of October 1920