COAL IN AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1919, Page 5

COAL IN AUSTRALIA.

MORE ECONOMY ADVOCATED, .THE "GO SLOW" POLICY. By Telejraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Sydney, Nov. 12. The.report of the Royal Commission which inquired into the conditions of the coal mining industry recommends the need, in the interests both of the State and the public, of more economical methods of working and distribution to prevent the present serious waste. Denling with the habit of miners absenting themselves from the mines and thereby interfering with the output, the report says that had the miners worked wi*h the same honesty and consistency in 191S as in 1014 their average daily earnings should have shown an increase corresponding to the increase of the tonnage rate, but that if rs only about hnlf what it should liaVe been. This is fairly conclusive proof tlmt the miners are not working up to their normal capacity. They are receiving a rate of pay which, even with their reduced working time, enables them to make sufficient without unduly taxing their energies. Regarding profiteering, the commission found evidence that the public was charged prices beyond the measure of the initial increases in the cost of production, while there was strong reason to believe that retail dealers charged the prices of first-class eoal for an inferior article. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.