The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER , 1929. BRITAIN’S COAL MARKET.

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1929, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, OCTOBER , 1929. BRITAIN’S COAL MARKET.

'On his return .'.to -England lately, Mr J. H. Thomas, Lord Privy Seal, observed that he had been playing in Canada the part of a commercial traveller, an unusual one for a British Cabinet Minister, and had taken there with him samples of British coal. Now he has been meeting British coal-own-ers i!i conference, to discuss the question of securing the Canadian contracts obtainable, as he ascertained if the price were satisfactory. There snould lie a highly promising market for British coal in Canada. That dominion, according to figures published in the Economist, has for many years imported between “fourteen and eighteen million tons of coal a year from, the United States. But she does not import, .it at a price that will defy British competition. Production and transport costs are now such that Britih coal can be quoted in Canada at some shillings p-er ton less than the American article. The price at the pit-head is higher in Britain, but the ]omr and costly hauls, with river and canal transport in some cases, from the American mines to Canadian cities causes the price of the delivered t American coal to mount up heavily, 'l he cost of carriage from pits in the States to destinations in Canada averages over twenty shillings a ton. England, on the other hand, has pits near her ports, and cheap sea freights across the Atlantic, fhe result being that the cost of carrying British coal

to Canada is only about one-half that of carrying American coal to the dominion. Coal-owners in Britain are now giving attention to the Canadian market, and methods are being adopted to grade and size the coal to .suit Canadian customers. On the Canadian side storage is being planned so that there may be no shortage when the St. Lawrence ports are blocked by ice, and the Canadian Harbour Cbmnussioners are said to be projecting great port development schemes that will suit the coal import trade. 'Evidently, remarks the Otago Times, tiie moment was ripe for Mr Thomas’s little essay in commercial travelling, in its bearing upon the prevalence of unemployment ill Great j>ritain, a matter that is of especail concern to Air l’nomas since the duty of handling the jjai.oiir dilhculty has been assigned to mm by the Oovermncnt, the prospect of securing a nig opening fur British coal in Canada m eonipensatioii for the business lost in Europe since the war is of considerable importance. Necessarily, also, in so far as it may affect the greater development of trade within the Empire die propect is highly welcome. Meanwhile the conference of coal experts at Geneva, eaiied by tile Economic Committee of the League of Nations to consider the world coal situation, is on the eve of meeting, and its deliberations should be iraugiit wiui interest.