STATE COAL. Will it Help the Poor?

Free Lance, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1904, Page 6

STATE COAL. Will it Help the Poor?

WHEN the average man, who has a hard job to make both ends meet, and whose wife sprinkled the family "hundred" of coal to make it last longer, heard the State intended going mto< the coal business, he was pleased with a great joy Since the State has gone into the "black diamond" industry, he is wondering if his fuel is to be made cheaper, and he hopes so It is asserted that the surplus coal will be retailed to dealers, who will be required to sell it at a fixed price — presumably at a less price than the exorbitant one now demanded m Wellington. We have been wondering m what respect the State coal differs in appearance from coal that has come out of company mines, and whether each lump has the Government brand on it. You see, if such a person as a coal-dealer who was "on the make" happened to live m this blameless city, he might buy State coal at State prices, put it m the non-State heap along with the rest, and sell it at the advanced rate as heretofore There is no way to prevent him, and coaldealers are but human. # * * No one is going to deny that the coal trade in Wellington is an extremely lucrative business, and that the people have more reason to complain about it than they have about the price of bread And the Government cannot reduce the price of what is really a luxury at present by selling it to retailers, who will be able, if so disposed, to* still keep the price up If the State has enough coal to make it worth while to sell to the public, surely the only fair way to retail it is from the State's own depots, where the people who bought, it could get it at a reasonable cost ? * * * Supposing it was found, for instance, that the State could make a decent profit by selling its own coal at 25s a ton, would the people who buy it by the hundredweight go to a dealer who sold it at 39s a ton ? Hardly The private dealer would come down to State prices — and probably still do a lucrative business

II would be far kinder to the people for the State to refuse to sell any coal at all than that there should be a "middleman" style of doing business * * * We haven't any visible stocks of mined coal, and it is hard to say when the Admiralty will want a hundied thousand tons If the State is going to help the people it has no right to help only the coal-deal©r section of the people. It has a right to wipe out the enormous profits that are now enjoyed by the coal traders In other words, let it sell straight out to the people without any intervention by companies or dealers.