COAL PRICES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1944, Page 6

COAL PRICES

DEALERS WANT INCREASE

Despite many promises by the Minister of Mines that greater quantities of coal would be made available to the public the coal position today is as bad as it has ever been, says the annual report of the Wellington Coal Unfn^r T* Dealers> Industrial Union of Employers presented to their annual meeting yesterday. Conditions had made it difficult to operate the report added, and several members had been forced to close their businesses war hL T£ ahsedt of c°urse,.that the war has been responsible to a large extent for the-shortage of supplies 8 + c, oal ' .Jut not to the extent to justify the attitude of the authorities in withholding supplies for domestic use The State has recently taken over the contra* of several coal mines throughout ?T C£Ullt^' but whether this will have the effect of producing more Sal is a matter for conjecture to ™S r + hhe Pric<: Trikunal has failed ?n,>r2f ceyhe.association's requests for thft ed PrJCes> but *t is understood that, as a result of the most recent representations made, the tribunal fa. at present conducting a survey of the' position in Wellington. The associa! tion is hopeful that as a result of th!s survey the tribunal will realise the1 conditions under which coal retailers are at present operating. Very few dealers have shown a profit over the ar-tnSi? y£3rS> and' indeed' mafiy have •S, 7 * H °™n a consi derabie loss." president, Mr. J. Syme; secretary, M? W-,/• Mountjoy; executive, Messrs H Baldwin^ R. A J MacKay, S. J. Lamble' s. f cß^Xk%.ltf' A- Smim'