OFFICIAL EXPLANATION.

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1917, Page 2

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION.

The official explanation of the Department is as follows : —

"A printed notice exhibited in the office of the State Coal Department shows that the rate per ton quoted'is for 'mine screened -coal,' which is delivered in the same condition as received ex steamer. State coal, being of a somewhat friable nature, a certain percentage of slack is made in the various processes of handling, which is. of course, unavoidable; but on the whole a fair average sample is being supplied to householders. The practice in vogue with the Department is in keeping with the general trade custom adopted some months, ago by the various coal merchants' associations, who recognised the impossibility of meeting winter demands for coal if double screening were continued^ :

. "Considering that the State coal is delivered . at 13s per ton below the price fcharged for, competing., coal, I fail to see any reasonable -grounds for complaint. As indicating the especially good value householders in Wellington are receiving in getting supplies of mine screened coal at 37s per ton, I might mention that in Dunedin the Coal Merchants' Association charges 45s 6d per ton for. slack coal. «..-

"The coal supplied to the Wellington Gas Company is 'small Liverpool,' and occasionally unscreened Liverpool, and as these grades are not suitable for household purposes domestic supplies are in no way depleted in consequence."