PRICE OF SLACK

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 275, 9 August 1918, Page 4

PRICE OF SLACK

DIRECT EVIDENCE. Tho Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luko), who is interesting himself on behalf of tho citizens in the coal and slack question, has received a leiter from Mr. CM. R. Whito, secretary of the Pukeiniro Collieries, Ltd., in the Waikato, which endorses his attitude in bringing under tho notice of tho Government the exorbitant micee for 6lack that aro being charged the "Wellington public. Tho letter is as follows:— "Dear Sir,—-Referring to an artido which appeared in a Wellington paper re the exorbitant charges for slack coal, for your information we beg to adviso that in no case does the price of Waikato slack to dealers in the Wellington district exceed ss. per ton. Tho railage to Wellington is 15?. 4d. por ton, or a total ojj 20s. 4d. per ton in trucks at the Wellington station." As tlio local dealers admit that tho price charged for slack is 2s. 3d. per cwt., it means that there is a margin of JU 4s. Bd.' to cover the cost of cartago from, the railway trucks to, the yards, bagging and weighing tho sjack. delivering it to householders, and profit. 'I no Mayor states that, he cannot believe Iliac tho prico for West Coast slack can Vie very much greater than for Waikato slack, and is inclined to hold that tho public is being overcharged (in comparison with the price charged for coal). The case would" hardly bo so bad, he stated, if Ihe slack that was being sold last month ill Wellington had been good, burnable, hoat-giving slack, but, as far ns ho could judge, a proportion of it, at all events, was of very inferior quality, and practically valueless as household fuel. He was pleased that tlm Government had taken up Hie matter, as really a very' great hardship had be*n imposed upon the public at tho very worst and coldest period of the year.