THE WORLD'S COAL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 184, 6 August 1925, Page 6

THE WORLD'S COAL.

The analysis of the world's coal industry made by the International Labour Bureau is a very important document. The crisis in the British coal industry is seen to be not an isolated condition, but part of a depression that affects the world. Germany, says the report, has ten million tons of unsaleable coal, Belgium a million and a half tons, and Poland a million tons. The latest available returns show that these accumulations are about 8 per cent of the German output, 6 per cent of the Belgian, and 3 per cent of the Polish. This widespread crisis, the Bureau points out, is duo to a steady increase in coal production and decline in demand owing to the use of other sources of power. The naval figures cited are illuminating. In 1924 the British Admiralty bought 1,424,000 tons less than in the year before the war. Nothing is said in our cabled summary about merchant, shipping, but it is well known that the use of oil for steam raising and of internal combustion engines is rapidly increasing. Also, in every country electrical power is becoming more popular. It is disturbing to read the Bureau's opinion that "Britain has suffered worst owing to her failure to introduce modern machinery and methods" into her pits, but this has often been said by English critics. It supports the opinion of the general secretary of the Miners' Federation, which is also reported to-day, that "the industry is over-capitalised and needs reorganising in respect to production, distribution, and finance." In some cases profits have gone to swell capital which should have been spent in improvements. All this shows that the problem in Britain is much wider than a dispute

about wages.