00AL STRIKE

Feilding Star, Volume 8, Issue 2668, 26 August 1930, Page 7

00AL STRIKE

COST VICTORIA £1,000,C00 EAST OVERSEA CARGO From .Tanu-lrv 1, 1029, t > July !**. 1930, 62 overseas ships brought 420.6To tons of *aa 110 Melbourne. Puling tlie : ,au.e period, interstate beatentered the port with. 839.576 tons. The last r.l the oversea.-: real ships Cope St. Columbia, is now in* the Bay awaiting a berth 11. unload about 7000 tuns of coni fei the MetrGp -iifan Gas Company She r; the bi-t of the coal earning Duns Irani lli-li. The total a i-ai brought to Melbourne because or the New Sout.’i Wales co;d strike at an average price oif 45. s a ton, c.i.f., represents a,a expenditure of more than £967,182. In assessing the total costs of the strike to Victoria, the fact that thfca-e was an increase in the cost of gas supplied to the community and other things must be added to the tost of the coal imported. LOSS ON IMPORTATIONS There was a heavy first loss in importations, because of their higher price ,as well as the loss caused by the lower volatile content of the English coal used for gas-making. The coal carbonised at tlie AXetrO polita.n Gas Company’s works beiore the- strike was all Alaitimid cilal, which is recognised as tlie best in the world for gas-making. The total cost of all the coal from England and New Zealand brought to Melbourne hv tlio Metropolitan Gas Company was £840.000, and with the exception of £93.000 spent on wharfage dues and tevedoring. all this amount was lost to tlio Commonwealth.