STATE COAL.

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1934, Page 6

STATE COAL.

[TO the editob.J

Sir, —I would ask you for space in your paper, to allow nie to publish a. few facts regarding the short time woi’Kcd at the Liverpool mine. I have recently returned from a visit to different centres in New Zealand, where I had the opportunity of speaking with a few large consumers of coal. The first, and principal complaint, was that the price of State coal was too high. The engineer of one gas company put it this way: State coal (small) is 13/6 per' ton, Dobson (small) is S/G; Wallsend (small) is 9/-; and the worst of it is that the hewing of State coal is lower than hat at Dobson and Wallsend. The haulage at the State mine works automatically. At Dobson there is a heavy pull up, and at Wallsend, there is a shaft. The second complaint was irregular, or non-fulfilment of orders. The same engineer complained that orders for arrival at a certain date, sometimes arrived two or' three weeks later; and sometimes the order did not arrive at all. The third complaint was that the coal arrived as a mixture, having a big percentage of inferior coal from other mines included in ii, and that made it unpopular with buyers.—l am, etc., J. A. OLSEN.