GOAL VEND JUDGMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 425, 23 December 1911, Page 5

GOAL VEND JUDGMENT.

o DEFENDANTS CONVICTED. FINES TOTAL £1!i,500. II y Tcie.-vupLL.-Piv-,, A:-^>;-i;it ion.- Con.vritfllt Received December 23, 8 a.m. Sydney, Last Night. Mr Justice Isaacs has concluded the delivery of the Coal Vend judgment. He convicted ;19 defendants of the several offences charged against them and ordered each to pay a line of .£SOO, with the exception of the Associated Northern Colliery because its individual members wore amongst those fined. He granted an injunction restraining defendants from a repetition or continuance of the several offences whereof they were convicted and ordered defendants to pay plaintiffs costs.

On the application of the colliery proprietors the judge granted a stay of proceedings in connection with penalties pending an appeal.

In the course of his summing up Justice Isaacs referred to the combination as a gigantic conspiracy. It. was difficult to say how much the public was being overcharged for coal, but the figures indicated the total improperly gathered in by the united efforts'of the collieries and shipping companies reached a very high figure. Besides the detriment to the public with regard to price was the restriction in the choice of coal. The Coal Vend and shipping companies looked to no one's advantage but their own. This they followed up wherever they could and to the greatest possible distance. Defendants gathered to themselves a giant's strength and used it as a giant not only against the public, but on all who stood or endeavoured to stand between them and the public. The fines imposed are to the statutory "limit and total AlH).r>oo.