THE COAL POSITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1921, Page 10

THE COAL POSITION.

-FROM LABOR’S POINT OF'VIEW,

Mr. W. A. Thomas, Puniho, writes as follows: —

Sir, —1 herewith enclose an article in the Maoriland Worker, dealing with the price of coal, etc. I will esteem it. a favor if you would find space to publish it. There has been a good deal of interest taken in this matter recently, and anything bearing thereon, will, I feel sure, be welcomed by your readers. It is aleo evident that you have appreciated the importance of this matter, Mr. Editor, as a long article appeared in the News on the above a short ,t ime ago. Although the enclosed may not bear out all your deductions, I feel sure you will agree with me that a sound opinion of the rights and wrongs cannot be formed unless every aspect of the matter is thoroughly gone into.

(Enclosure from Maoriland Worker.) In the ten years between 1910 and 1919 in New Zealand the highest annual production of coal took place in 1914, in which year 2,275,614 tons were delved from Mother Earth. The total number of men employed above and below ground in effecting this output was 4,734, the highest number engaged in and about the mines in any year in the period mentioned. Of these roughly 3,560 worked underground. The average production of each man employed underground in 1914, viz., 639 tons, was with one exception the lowest in the ten years. Since 1914, despite an increase in the average production per man to 750 tons in 1916, made evidently under the spur of war conditions, there has been a progressive decline in the total annual output, and since 1916 a decline in the average production per individual. In 1919, however, “go-slow” notwithstanding, the average output per underground worker (numbering approximately 2,850) was nine tons in excess of that in 1914, the exact figure being 648 tons. Although the average individual production increased from 639 to 648 tons between 1914 and 1919 the total production fell from 2,275,614 to 1,847,848 tons, or a drop of roughly 430,000 tons. Obviously, therefore, the cause of this decline is not to be found in the deficiency of the miner; it must be sought elsewhere. The real reason for the fall in coal production is that since 1914 the number employed in the industry has steadily decreased, until in 1919 — and the tendency continues—mine workers inside and outside the mines numbered 800 less than in 1914.

In 1914 the total number employed was 4,734; in 1919 it was 3,944, the underground workers numbering respectively 3,560 and 2,850. If in 1919 an equal number of underground workers to that employed in 1914 had been employed, the total coal production for the year would have been ‘2,300,880 tons, 25,000 tons more tlian was mined in 1914, the record year for this ten-year period. The position is then that each miner produced more, but that the industry was insufficiently attractive to retain the services of substantial numbers of those who might be working in it.

What, explains this exodus of miners from the industry in whose processes ’they are qualified and competent? The explanation is simple: Its conditions fail to satisfy the requirements of a worker’s life as the miner* sees it in the light of his growing Socialist intelligence; considering the abnormality of the work, its darkness, dirt and danger, together with the high cost of living, the wages received for the important service the mliner renders are disgracefully inadequate: and the housing conditions in-the mining villages, besides being wretchedly insufficient, are primitive in the extreme. These facts, combined with the attraction of other industries where conditions are superior, have moved many miners to seek a livelihood elsewhere, and they provide the basic reason for the reduction in the coal output. The Government is well 7 aware of these facts, but it would rather pay exorbitant prices for coal brought thousands of miles across the seae thanf encourage the miner to work at mining by the enforcement of satisfactory working conditions and the provision of pleasant surroundings in housing and social life. Consequently, when the next dispute occurs, and the cry ascends to heaven about the greed and laziness of the miners’ intelligent people will know where to place the blame.

According to the 1920 Year Book the gross capital expenditure on the State coal mines up to March 31, 1920, amounted to £446,700, and no less than £231,340 of this amount has been written out of profits for depreciation, etc. This achievement has been accomplished from revenues from coal sold at a price, which, from the opening of the State coal mines, has been from 10s to 18s a ton lesri than was charged for coal mined from privately-owned eollieried. From figures tabled by Messrs. Bishop and Pryor at the .coal mining conference held in Wellington in August, 1919, it would seem that the cost of hewing coal and placing it on trucks at the mine mouth was less in the company than in the State mines, a fact which signifies that although State coal was selling at from 10s to 18s a ton less than private coal the State accorded its miners better conditions than, their comrades in private employ could obtain. Mr. Bishop on that occasion put the corit for the operation mentioned above at 9s Ud a ton, while Mr. Pryor, after a consultation with private mine managers, put it at 8s 6d. With the cost of coal production at the private mines Is 5d a ton less than al the State mines, and the price of private coal at 10s to 18s a ton more than that of the State, some idea may be formed of the profits pocketed by the shareholders in the private companies. When the State mines, paying more for production and receiving less for sales, can, in the few years of their operations, write off, from profits, more than half of their gross capital expenditure, it is difficult not to believe that the business of share-holding in coal is lucrative indeed.

How much more the private colliery companies derive from their sales of coal than would have to be paid by the consumers were all the coal resource* of N.Z. mined and administered by the State may be calculated by reference ro the-statistics of pnxluction. Jn 1919 the total production was 1,848,000 tons of which in round figures. 177,000 tons came from the State collieries. The private companies must therefore have sold roughly 1,670,000 tons, for every ton of which they received at least 10s more than the price at which the State coal was sold at a satisfactory profit. The matter may be looked at from the standpoint of the consumer and of the miner. 1,670,000 tons at 10s a ton represents £835,000. and this is the amount I the consumer has to pay in excess of

what would be the case were the State operating the entire industry. If the State then owned and controlled all our coal resources, and administered them in accordance with the principles it already applies to its mines on the West Coast, the consumer would be conceded a reduction in the cost of living of £835,000 a year, while every miner in N.Z., in addition to his enjoyment of the aforesaid reduction in the cost of living, would benefit to the tune of the Is 5d a ton now received by the ■State miners over and above the cost of production to the private companies. But as the State does not own and control the entire industry the £835,000 of excess profits raked in by the companies must be regarded as the amount available to meet the miners’ demands.

On the basis of the employers’ calculations this amount would just about pay the cost of conceding every demand now made by the Miners’ Federation. At the 1919 conference Mr. Plryor estimated that the granting of all the miners’ demands, and assuming that those demands would result in a reduction of 30 per cent, in the output (which assumption the miners do not accept) would add 9s 9d to the cost of putting a ton of coal on the trucks. On the 1919 tonnage of 1,670,000 handled by the private companies the added cost could be met by the £835,000, with possibly a little to spare. At present prices, therefore, the coal industry can bear all the miners’ demands and leave to the private employers profits equal and proportionate to those annually accumulated by the State.