WALLSEND COAL MINE.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 21 March 1901, Page 3

WALLSEND COAL MINE.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —What with the letters appearing in your morning contemporary re the had business that coal dealing is—the childish remarks of one of your local dealers, it is time some hard headed practical man said something-re (hose poor coal dealers the Argus has so much sympathy for, on account of the amount of competition amongst them. J would only ask the people of Greymouth to have a look round and see if they can find any. I have looked, and can only find one dealer for each of the collieries. Why, even in Brunner it is amonoply, in so far, that if you buy a ton of coal at the pit bank, you can’t even have a say in whose cart it will be brought to your door in. As one man has die monopoly of even that, Another thing you might do Mr Editor and that is to enquire what you can buy a ton of the stuff the dealers are glad to get rid of, after selling the round coal, even if they have to cart it away somewhere themselves, or give it awav. Perhaps you would do those poor coal dealers a kindness by accepting a present of a few tons, so that they might get rid of it in an easy manner.

Eo the remarks of Mr Matheson at the Harbor Board Meeting if reported correctly, that he would as soon see Wallsond closed, as at present, as see it opened because he had never seen a ton of good coal come out of r. This is a schoolboy’s yarn that any one, that ever

worked in that colliery would laugh at, and I should think comes very bad from an aspiring Mayor. If an opinion of all the people that worked there was taken, ninly-mnc per cent would emphatically declare that, Wallsend coal is equal to the best coal ever seen in this district. Perhaps, Mr Editor, you remember the Pukaki, when she took a cargo of some 1000 tons of Wallsend coal to Melbourne, and the report came back that it was condemned as not IP for any purpose ; but I don’t know whether y, u or the public are aware that not more than one third of that cargo came from Wallsend, but from Coal Pit Heath as half of the men working in Wallsend were transfered to coal Pit Heath mine to load the Pukaki for that trip but perhaps Mr Mathoson would tell us that ho had not seen a ton cf good coal come out of Coal Pit Heath. Honing some abler pen than mine may deal with this matter and thanking you in anticipation. I am, etc. — Coalminer. Brunner. March 21, 1901.