LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 280, 15 August 1918, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

COST OF COAL Sir,—Regarding the recent inquiry into ■tho coat of coal, and the statement'of the" retail coal dealers appearing in this morning's Dominion, the costs of tho coal givon are interesting, but should tho inquiry stop there?- Why should not tho Board of Trade institute some inquiries into the wholesale price of coalf The position in Wellington is that coal is supplied,to the coal dealers by wholeKilo merchants. The coal owners have stated that they are making only small profits; the Miners' Federation says enormous profits are" being made. Surely, therefore, thero should be an inquiry to ascertain tho price charged at the mines to .the merchants, the tftsa freight, and the price charged by the merchants to tho dealers. Regarding the slack coal question, and chiefly Waikato " slack, which has never been used before for household ' purposes, the. position disclosed shows that the Wellington Coal Trade Committee stipulated that coal ■dealers must supply an equal quantity of slack or coke with screened coal, but did not-fix the price of the slack to bo charged by dealers. Do ike members of tho Coal Trade Committeo themselves supply the slack to the dealers? Information regarding these points should bo interesting.—l am, etc., EX-DBALBR.