MICE OF COAL IN NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 384, 11 June 1866, Page 3

MICE OF COAL IN NE W ZEALAND.

The * Nelson Colonist’ of a recent dale contains an able article on the above subject, which we have much pleasure in transferring to our columns, and which we commend to the careful perusal of our readers, who, we have no doubt, will be as much astonished as we were ourselves at the enormous profit obtained by those engaged in the coal trade in New Zealand. With our Nelson contemporary, we cannot refrain from asking the. question,—“ With the best Australian coal at 8s 3d to 9s at Newcastle, why is it that we in New Zealand are condemned to pay ,£2 10s (in Napier it is procurable at ,£2 6s, thanks to a wholesome competition). The following is the article from the e Colonist’: —

“ Considering the ever-recurrent talk of the coal-fields of New Zealand, and the coal supply that is to be frommir own resources ; considering that that tall?* has been a standing dish in print, and before audiences who were doomed to listen to local politicians; that it has formed the theme of numerous scientific prelections, and papers laid before erudite commissioners; considering all these things, and considering, moreover, that New Zealand consumes above a hundred thousand toils of coal yearly, and that for a dozen jL-ars the ‘development of our coal-fields’ has been the favorite slang on the lips of all who talk of the advancement of the various provinces of the colony ; taking all this into account, one would be led to suppose one of two things, either that a large supply of New Zealand coal would have been in the market long ago, or, since it is not, that the price at which Australian coal is furnished in the New Zealand markets would bar competition, and that New Zealand coal mining companies could not supply coal at the same price as Australian companies. If we wese to judge by the ordinary facts of commercial dealing, we should conclude that this latter supposition respecting the price of Australian coal was altogether wrong, because its selling price in Nelson is no less than .£2 10s per ton, and that for coal inferior in quality to that of the New Zealand

Q?ines producing coal proper. Of course there ought to be a large margin for profit left to tlie New Zealand coal-worker; but the inference that, because Australian coal is sold at an exorbitant price in Nelson, therefore it is dear at the Australian mines, would be a deduction entirely erroneous; and the only conclusion left is, that some persons must get enormous profits .out of the coal imported from Australia. “ A discussion on the price of coal at Newcastle lately took place in one of the Sydney papers, and there we read to our astonishment the statement of a coal proprietor that the price of the best cos'd at Newcattle was recently 9s per ton (we write the price that there may be no mistake —nine shillings per ton), —and that still more recently, in consequence of the keen competition that there existed, the ‘ representatives of one of the English companies contracted to supply oue of the large steam companies with coal at 8s 3d per ton,’ and this had the effect of causing the Australian companies to reduce their prices to the same figure. “ Here is the mystery. With the best Australian coal at 8s 3d to 9s at Newcastle, why is it that we in New Zealand are condemned to pay £2 10s (in Southland it is from £3 to i-3 10s.) for this same article ? Is anyone prepared to say that six hundred per cent, must be added to the original cost in order to carry the coal over a thousand miles of ocean, a twelve or fourteen days' passage, in order to yield a profit to the importer ? “ No doubt our coal-consuming readers will be as much surprised as we are on the perusal of these commercial facts. The coal trade ought to he the best at present going; and if some of our numerous steamers of large carrying capacity, which do not find profitable passenger or ordinary cargo traffic, would direct their attention this winter to the coal trade from Australia to New Zealand, we should imagine that they would secure a satisfactory profit to themselves, and make a satisfactory abatement to New Zealand consumers. ‘ The price of the best cal at Newcastle is 8s 3d per ton;’ in New Zealand the selling price of the same coal runs from £2 10s to .£3 10. The most stolid skipper could calculate the certain result of such a cargo by the crudest rule of thumb.”