STATE COAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 20 May 1907, Page 5

STATE COAL.

(To the Editor). Sir.—l notice that a correspondent in your columns is under the impression that I have expressed an opinion adverse to the use of State coal for household purposes, and you certify to the accuracy of his view' by republishing a letter in which I say; ■"I find that the coal that is being sold at the Masterton Gasworks is quite unsuitable for household purposes." How such a statement can be held to be condemnatory of State coal, seeing that State coal is not sold at the Masterton Gasworks, I must leave you and your correspondent to explain. lam in hopes that our reconstituted Borough Council will perceive the expediency of erecting a shed for coal and coke, and providing consumers with State coal, which is an excellent fuel for household purposes, and the product of Democratic enterprise and New, Zealand labour, instead of supplying only Westport coal, which is good for gas-making, but not for household use, or Newcastle coal, which is imported from the ' Australian Continent. —I am, etc., A. W. HOGG. (Mr Hogg's statement that we certified to the accuracy of our correspondent's view is, of course, not correct. Mr Mackay, in his letter, doubted the correctness of a paragraph, which had appeared some days previously in our columns, and to satisfy him as to the 'correctness'of the paragraph we quoted Mr Hogg's letter in extenso. IWe also quoted Mr Hogg's letter to show the ambiguity in which he had indulged. Apparently Mr Hogg's "method of expressing himself in favour of the Borough Council undertaking the sale of State coal was to explain to that body that for sometime past he had been using in his house coal of a very unsuitable nature for household purposes.—Ed. W.A.)