FINANCE OF COAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1379, 4 March 1912, Page 5

FINANCE OF COAL.

WIDE DIFFERENCES IN PROFITS. At the present juncture it is interesting (says the London "Daily Mail" of recent date) to seo what kind of profits the collieries earn. Comparatively few of them issue accounts, but wo give a list of about twenty companies, representing an aggregate capital of about seven millions sterling, of which tho particulars nro available. We show the amount of capital in each case and tho dividend which was paid for the last completed year. It will be seen that the profits vary strangely; whereas ono company paid'a dividend of as much as 22$ per cent, and another 20 per cent., half a dozen of the companies were able to pay no dividends at all:— Ordinary Last Annual Capital. Dividend. X Albion Steam Colliery 220,800 nilsinco Aug., 1908 Andrew KnoTrles and Sons 600,000 3 Arniston Coal 65,000 5 Astley and Tyldesley 130,000 22J Brobmhill Collieries 175,000 nil since Oct., 1909 Cambrian Collieries 200,000 10 D. Davis &Sons ... 450,000 10 Edinburgh Collieries 237,000 nil since 1907 Dundee Coal 273,000 nil Fife Coal 81G.262 17J Great Western Colliery 250,000 • 10 Hordern Collieries 590,820 4 Main Colliery 100,000 6 Newport Abcrcarn Blade Vein Steam Coal 150,000 ' nil since 1909 Niddrie and Benhar Coal 200,000 nil since 1910 North Navigation Collieries 600,000 71 Powell-Duffryn Steam Coal 825,000 20 South Hotton Coal 500,000 7i Thus it seems evident that while some of the collieries could afford to give their men better terms, it might mean extinction in the ease of others. Dividends of 3, l.and 5 per cent, do not suggest a very large margin of profit. Mr. Guthrie, the secretary of the Northumberland Coalowners' Association, has stated that the adoption of the men s proposal would lead to the closimr of many of the collieries, whereas Mr. English,' the president of the Northumberland Miners' Association, declares thatit is nos«ible for the owners to get a prico sufficient to meet the extra cost involved in the proposal. Mr. Fenwick, the miners M.P., has expressed the opinion that the minimum wa»e would drive us farther back in the nrea of competition with foreign countries in our coal exports, and by that means the owners would earn less profit and the miners less wages. It is estimated that in the fiTe numtlis coal strike in South Wales m 1893 tho loss to the miners in wages alone was £3,250,000, the total loss to the trade being .£10,000,000.