THE EMPTY PORT

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1930, Page 9

THE EMPTY PORT

NEWCASTLE'S TRAGEDY

What the coal strike has meant to Australia is vividly conveyed by G. A. King in an article in a recent issue of tho "Sydney Morning Herald." The tragedy of Newcastle, us a coal port, is best illustrated by the fact that tho production of coal now is at about the same level as it was in the early 'sixties of last century, says Mr. King. At that period, the output from the northern district, was between 400,000 and 500,000 tons; and based on the official figures for the first quarter of this year the production at present is not greater than the quantity mentioned. Compare these facts with the figures of only eight years ago—l922—and they apply only to the northern fields, when 7,150,921 tons of coal was produced, and the tragedy, as far as figures canspeak, is complete. Never before, in the history of Australia, has an industry been so completely strangled, almost to the point of extinction, by industrial troubles. But the worst feature of the tragedy is- that the export trade hns completely vanished —a trade which in 1903—and that year is selected haphazard — amounted to nearly 4,000,000 tons, valued at something approaching £2,----000,000. In that year the northern districts produced 6,354,846 tons of coal, of which 3.986,194 tons was exported. Is it at ail likely that the north, even with a return to industrial sanity, will ever regain an appreciable fraction of that trade? One is, unfortunately, forced to the conclusion that it is not likely. Thus, in tho best circumstances, it will probably be found that the Newcastle and South Maitland districts, with some of the richest coalfields in the world, will bo .'reduced to supplying only a portion of tho local demand —for the southern and western mines must bo borne in mmd —and with no export trade whatever. There is still another point. With many of tho richest mines in the north closed down, there is no real shortage of coal, and all essential public services which require coal are being .provided uninterruptedly. Then, what of the future?. A considerable expansion of our manufacturing industries would create a greater demand for coal; and a substantial reduction in the selling price —with a long period of freedom from industrial troubles, and the guarantee of a continuity of supply—might possibly result iv New South Wales regaining sonic of the .lost export trade. But the position in that regard is desperate, and only desperate remedies are likely to effect a cure. A CONTRACT. Now let us glance at. Newcastle of to-day and compare it with, Newcastle of less than twenty years ago. A few days ago tho writer stood on the heights near the Anglican Cathedral and looked down on the coal wharves at Bullock Island, the Dyke at Carrington, and the Inner Basin—the latter constructed a comparatively few years ago to provide accommodation for the then everincreasing number of vessels which procured coal from Newcastle. Two or three steamers lay in the Inner Basin, but along the great expanse of wharfage accommodation at Bullock Island and the Dyke—most of it reclaimed years ago at tremendous cost—there was not a single steamer or ship of any kind loading coal. At the extreme end of the Dyke were two or three tugs— almost forlorn and waiting in tho extremity of hope, it seemed, for .some of the myriad of ships which formerly raced to Newcastle, and which needed help to negotiate the difficult entrance to the port. In those days, not many years ago, there were scarcely tugs enough to go round to tow the scores, indeed tho hundreds, of vessels which hungered for coal, and which in many instances lay in the stream for days and weeks awaiting their turn for berthing accommodation^ under the electric and hydraulic loading appliances dotted along the long lines of wharves—cranes which worked day and night in an effort to supply coal to customers overseas. Now all is quiet, the sense of tragedy broods over the scene, and the peoplo of Newcastle, and business men who perforce visit the city, are able to sleep peacefully, undisturbed by the rattle of cranes and the incessant shunting of railway hoppers as they brought their tons of coal to the waterside, and undisturbed also by the almost nervewracking noiso as the contents of the six, eight, and ten-ton hoppers were dropped into the holds of tho waiting vessels —all impatient to get to sea and deliver their cargoes overseas. A closer inspection of these scenes of former activity emphasises the sense of tragedy. Where formerly there was the din associated with tho shipping of the coal, where the wharves resounded with the language of almost, every I nationality—for the ships of the Seven Seas came to Newcastle—there is absolute silence. Tho cranes are silent; the long lines of coal-hoppers—rust-covered and many of them in various stages of decay—are at a standstill; weeds feet high are growing round the wheels and axles of the trains of trucks—arc even growing in some trucks of fine coal which havo lain idle for months along the wharves.

Even the decking of the ■wharves and of the overhead railway bridges is showing signs of decay, and desolation, exists on every hand. Life is entirely absent, except as an occasional water-rat scampers under die wliiirv.es in fright at the approach of human beings. So we leave tho empty lines of wharves— eloquent testimony of the tragedy of Newcastle 38 a great coal port*