THE PRICE OF COAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 359, 27 May 1874, Page 6

THE PRICE OF COAL.

The reduction in the price of coal in the Manchester district has not become general in the county of Lancashire. The Wigan and Tyldesley districts quote their round coal at a reduction of from 2s. to 23. 6d., a nd their inferior descriptions Is., and in soms instances 6d. decrease The Ashton-under-Lyne proprietors, while resolving to follow the general reduction, have the intention of reducing colliers' wages 15 per cent. A complete summary of the mineral statistics of the United Kingdom for last year has just been published. The total increase in the quantity of coal carried by railways and canals, as compared with that distributed in 1871, was 4,300,000 tons. There were some important coal-carrying lines, however, from which no returns have been received, and the actual estimated increase has been placed at more than 5,000,000 tons. The consumption of coal in the iron manufacture is computed, upon the information furnished to the Royal Coal Commision, at the rate of three tons of coal used, for all purposes, to each ton of pig-iron produced. The total value of coal raised in the United Kingdom last year was £46,000,000 sterling, while the metal produced from mineral ores was estimated to be worth £22,000,000.