Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 1920. THE COAL TRADE AT HOME.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1920, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 1920. THE COAL TRADE AT HOME.

A short time ago American writers were visualising the United States as the world’s premier exporter of coal. These gentlemen were to a. great extent justified by the records of American exports; but, as events have shown, they reckoned without labour. There has lately been a very notable increase in revenues from British coal exports, and to the prosperity thus attained we owe the sensational reduction in the price of coal (10s. per ton) under Government control for domestic purposes. The following table, covering the past seven months, is illuminating as showing the extent to which export prices Jiave advanced. It will be seen that while in October the quantity of coal exported was only 161,529 tons more than in April, the value was £3,629,495 higher, and the price per ton, f.0.b., was 625. sd, compared with 38s Id in April. The figures are:—

Average

Tons. Value. per ton f.o.b. 73,400,118 ... £50,727,252 ... 13s. lOd The whole question of coal profits and their allocation may be said to be in the melting-pot. Industry fails to see why it should not have a material share in any contemplated reduction, and the coal owners are up in arms against the proposed limitation of their profits. Reviewing the position at a large and representative gathering of coal owners and others interested, at a luncheon at the Savoy Hotel recently, Lord Gainford said that if the Government proposed to press their Bill to limit the profits to Is 2d on the output of the past seven months to the current financial year, which showed only 215,000,000 tons for the year, it was equivalent to depriving the coal trade of half of their pre-war profits, which were earned in a period when capital was receiving a much smaller rate of interest than it could now command, and therefore the coal trade and its shareholders, numbering 150,000 individuals, could only regard the proposal, ifTt were pressed, as sheer robbery and confiscation. The point, however, which the trade desired to emphasise, and upon which they sought the support of those interested in all other industries and trades, was that there was no right whatsoever for a Government to impose a special limitation of an exceptionally harassing character on one industry alone. The working cost of collieries under the Government control had risen to a point at which there was no profit made on the average over the whole country in connection with distribution of coal to inland consumers. It was only fair to the mineowners that the public should know that the high price of coal was due to the high costs created by the Government in raising the minimum wage. It was admitted that the high export prices which were obtainable from the foreigner to-day were of the greatest importance to the trade of the country and necessary to help international exchange. These high prices were undoubtedly due mainly as a result of the war and the difficulties connected with overseas transport. They had been, in recent months, obtained by great effort on the part of colliery owners, and the output of the collieries was expected to increase, not in consequence of any increased effort which was being made by the miners employed, who continued to send to the pithead a much loss tonnage per shift than they did before the war, hut it was attributable to the increased number of men returning to the industry and the wages which were attracting new workers into the mines.

Quantity Price exported, Value per ton f.o.b. s Tons. £ s. d. April ... 2,568,096 4,887,174 38 1 May ... 3,797,076 7,353,107 38 9 June ... 3,258,442 6,932,233 42 7 July ... 3,427,556 8,452,042 49 4 Aug. ... 2,170,813 5,537,508 51 0 Sept. .. 2,677,189 .7,732,919 57 9 Oct. .. 2,739,625 8,516,669 62 5 In 1913 the figures were:—