FOREIGN COAL TRADE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2172, 4 September 1920, Page 4

FOREIGN COAL TRADE.

UNDERSELLING GREAT BRITAIN. BIG ORDER FROM SWEDEN.

“Tim statement 'that a Middleshorotigh linn has just eompleled the sale ol‘ 1.40,000 tons of Australian eon I for delivery to Sweden has been received by the general public with considerable surprise,” remarks’ the London Finaneer, “especially as the price (|iioted, including freight tor twelve (hnnsaml miles, was £0 12s (id per ton, as against the price for English coal of £ll. 3s. The f.o.h. price of this ■Australian coal was 22s (id per lon, whilst the pit-head price in Great Britain is 31s 3d ahme. A Press representative yesterday sought some enlightenment on this subject from a member of a linn of Australian coal mine owners, and found that' the facts were even more remarkable than the statement given above indicated.

“If 22s (id per ton is the f.o.h. price obtained for the delivery, all I can say is that it is a very good price, especially when bunker coal at the present moment can be obtained in Newcastle. New South Wales, for 18s (id per ton, or nearly 13s less than your pithead price, and over Is less than the amount you are paying in wages per ton.

“Tins shipment to Sweden is. I believe, only the heyiimiuy of many similar li'iinsni-lions. There have recently been inquiries J'roni (he Continent lor over half a million tons of Australian eoal. “Asked why that in a country oh iiio'h- wayes the pit-head price of eoal in Australia should he so much below that prevailing in Great Britain, the Press representative was met with, the laconic reply, Won had better ask vour miners.’

‘•During 1919, 8.031 .on-l tons were raised in New South Wales, at a cos! at the pit-head of .C5,422,54(i, or just under 12s 7d per ton. This Imure should be compared with 31s 2d pm’ ton now, aeeordiny to lhe»otlieial liyures, ruJiny as the ]v;t.-head ]irice in Great Britain. In 1911 the pit-head price in Xew South Wales averayed 7 S 3d p.er ton. so that the increase between 1913 ‘and 1919 amounts to 13.5 p.er cent. In 1.913 the British pit-head price ,was I.os I ’d, and in 1919 28.-®7d. This shows an increase duriny the same period of rouyhly ISO per cent. “It is the method of-payment to the Xew South Wales miner that is probably the crux of the whole mat - ter. The system of piecework is riyidiy adhered to in the Xew Sooth Wales coalfield. Bates are fixed by a system of agreements and awards, and depend on the selliny price at the lime, and vary accordbur | o Vondil ions of seams and places where the eoal is mined. Thus duriny Deeemhor, 1019. the .-calc of pay for miners varied from 3s 5d to 5s 2d per ton in the northern division. while that ohlaininy in the southern division was 2s (id per ton. Assuming that the Australian miner is put tiny in a fair day’s work at a fair wage, and is as well off as his British comrade —which lie is—there is an obvious conclusion to he drawn from the system of payiuy by shifts which is in operation in I lie British mines.

‘‘Another iiiip:>i - 1;n 1 1 point in cmineetion with the Australian eon I trade was nienlioned hy a prominent Liverpool shipowner. It was to the effect that coal from the Antipodes was likely to be furnished in increasing ipiantilies to our coaling stations on the Eastern routes, and would he ((noted for hunkers nt such prices that it would continue to he more and more sought after, in spite of a slight inferiority in quality."