Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 183, 4 August 1919, Page 4

LATE NEWS.

COAL CONF_ftENC_.. aa-. — WELLINGTON', this day. At the Coal Conference this afternoon. Mr. Arl.u.-kle said that Ihe .Board of Trade's report was a most brilliant effort to conceal the real position in regard to the coal miners «.>_ New Zealand. He challenged the statement by Mr. Alison that the Board of Trade had gone fully into the coal owners' books. The figures supplied |ijr the owners did not show the position of the coal industry. Mr. Alison defended the management of the mines, which he said was thoroughly efficient. Mr. Arbuckle's statement that the Board >.r Trade report concealed the Inie position was quite incorrect. Mr. iVKnurkc. s:ii.l the federation would be scepti.-al until it knew how the figures ..f the Board of Trade report had l.ecn '•oiiipile.l. Mr. Alison, referring to the remark by Mr. Arh.ckle that the Stale mine was profitable, said i: was because the conditions under which it worked were so different, there being no taxes, no royalty, and no dividends io shareholders. The motion for an adjournment until this afternoon was agreed to.