PROFIT ON COAL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24076, 12 October 1943, Page 3

PROFIT ON COAL

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION OF DIFFERENCE Why the merchant’s profit on coal was 14s a ton in Southland and 24s a ton in Canterbury, and why a bag of coal weighed 1871b in Southland and 1401b in Canterbury were questions recently referred to the Department of Industries and Commerce by Mr Clyde Carr, M.P. * v Those margins and weights were in operation before the war and were determined by the merchants themselves, said the Hon. D. Wilson, M.L.C., when he replied for the Minister of Industries and Commerce. Since that time applications had been received by ’he Price Tribunal from the Dunedin and Christchurch merchants to have their margins increased, he said. The mer chants supplied information concerning their costs, and it was apparent that they were not deriving undue profit The tribunal had not approved any increases in coal merchants’ margins ip Christchurch or Dunedin, he added. Mr Wilson continued: “The actual margins made on coal in any part of the Dominion depend on a number of different circumstances. In some places there are better facilities; in some places the mines deliver to the merchants, and in other places the merchants have to collect the coal from railway sidings. Actually, in Auckland the coal goes through wholesalers, some of whom are able to bag and weigh the coal direct from railway trucks, while other merchants have to take the coal to their yards to weigh it. All of the merchants have suffered increased costs for petrol and other services, but they have not received any increases in their margins of profit, although they have made strong representations to the tribunal. “There are many anomalies as regards prices of almost every product sold in New Zealand, but an endeavour to remove these anomalies usually stirs up a hornet’s nest. As opportunity offered, the tribunal has endeavoured to straighten out such anomalies as it reasonably could.”