COAL OF SORTS

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 33, 7 August 1918, Page 8

COAL OF SORTS

THE EARTHY SLACK.

The complaints of very high prices charged for very poor slack—including "slaggy stuff" that ie said to have been unmarketable before the war—are being referred to the Board of Trade. At present there is no regulation to prevent the marketing of mine "damps" and the selling of this very inferior "fuel" at retail rates, which work out at anything up to £3 a ton in some cases, but the BoaTd can make recommendations as the basis of regulations to reduce the ruling prices of wot coal dust. The water m this compost sells at the same figure as the coal powder; so does the dirt, according to certain householders' gibes. "Iron-sand" states: "1 find the slack excellent for eanding the floor of the duck-house. The stuff will go on to the garden, where, I hope, the black dust will give more comfort to the cabbage and more joy to the artichoke and monef warmth to the csvrrot than it has given to me." The State Depot is steadily overhauling the back orders. The inner areas of the city have been supplied, but some of the outlying places are still waiting. With a continuance of supplies from the mine, the State Depot, the manager says, would be soon keeping pace with orders, but there is a threat of an. other interruption by wild weather on the "West Coast. The loading of a steamer at Greymouth yesterday was hindered by rain squalls. Last week numbers of citizens took advantage of the invitation to arrange for their own carting from the State's yard. About thirty tons went out that way.