HOW TO GET COAL

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1920, Page 4

HOW TO GET COAL

The Coal Control administration seems to j have effectively answered the charge or implied charge that the State Coal Department in Wellington has been starved. It is evident at the outset that it would be unreasonable to devote the output of a colliery exclusively to domestic supply, because the interests of the people, as wage-earners, demand the support of industries as well as of fireplaoos and 1 grates; and there is no evidence that the Coal Control Administration has held the balance unfairly as between the householder and other coii'sumers. In three months the State Coal Department's allocation has been 1118 tons of the output of the State collieries, and until it can be shown that this proportion is an unfair one, the cause of the trouble must be sought for elsewhere. And it is located, easily enough, not in the proportion of allocation but in the total of output. The State Coal Depot ceased taking orders b^eause the yard orders vm far ahead, oi available siijk

plies; and the available" supplies were below requirements because the miners were prevented from working their best —in the first place because of the "go slow" fallacy, and in. the second place because of influenza. In addition to these social and hygienic evils, theTe are other causes of loss of coal-distributing time, such as the West Coast bars. What is wanted is not destructive criticism of the allocating authority, but constructive criticism of the avenues and means of distribution. If the mental energy negatively wasted in suspicion of unfair play were invested in movements for the improvements of harbours, sea-carriage, and land-carriage, some positive result might ensue. «