QUANTITY AND QUALITY

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 40, 15 August 1918, Page 7

QUANTITY AND QUALITY

ANOTHER COMPANY REPLIES TO

ALLEGATIONS.

The local agents for. the WestportStockton Coal Company (Messrs. George PI. Scales, Ltd.) to-day repEed to the allegation that coal now being sold in Wellington from the West Coast mines had been taken from "dumps" or had been stacked at the pit-heads for years. Mr.-A. S. Collins, on behalf of Messrs. George H. Scales, Ltd., was very emphatic in hid contradiction. He said: "No coal his been 'dumped' ,at the-Westport-Stockton mine at Westport for at least six years, and- all coal shipped and sold in Wellington has been freshly mined within a very short time before shipment. With regard to screened coal; all screened- coal mined-, at the 'Wes'tport-Sfcockton mine, averaging between 3000 and 4000 tons monfhly, is the property of the New Zealand Railways under contract. Any Westport.-Stocktoii coal that has been sold in "Wellington for household purposes has been specially released at the request of the Minister of Munitions by the New Zealand Railways. The gross profit, that this firm makes on screened coal sold to retailers in Wellington for household purposes is Is 4d per ton, from which has to be deducted, roughly, 2d per ton for weighing paid to the Wellington Harbour Board, and from 2d to 6d per ton for tallying (varying according to the qnantity discharged, and other circumstances). "With regard to small coal, or eteam coal, we have only released this class of coal for householdpurposefi at the urgent request of,-the Wellington Coal Trade Committee, so as to facilitate the delivery of screened coal by the dealers, and we can assure . his Worship: .the ■Mayor that we have orders on haiicHor both these classes of coal amounting in.

■the aggregate to thousands of tons. The Westport-Stockton Coal ..Company has 'never catered for the household trad© in i Wellington, neither 'has 1 this firm-,* and ■no coal was sold by iia fov household i purposes between the month of April, 1917 until the beginning of the, winter this year, when we were, requested by the Minister' of-Munitions to release the coal We hive' always considered that, from our point of view, the household trade-is both an unprofitable and a thankless business." :