A RIDDLE OF PRICES.

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 193, 17 August 1936, Page 3

A RIDDLE OF PRICES.

AW ENGLISH CASE,

nn indication of difficulty in tho Government’s task in ascertaining a fair basis of prices, as the sequel to recent legislation, is given in a review of tlie British coal-mining industry by a contributor to “The Accountant" (London). “The major point at issue,” the writer states, “concerns the very wide margin between pithead and consumers’ prices, especially those paid by the domestic user, who is now being asked to pay still more in order that the industry may pass on to the public the bulk of any wage increases that may be given to the men. “fn theory, it should be easy enough to trace the entire price-structure process in tho progress from pithead to consumer. In practice, tills has so far proved impossible, despite the exceptional publicity given to the affairs of the industry. The official pithead prices can be obtained without difficulty, but when the consumer desires-an explaantion of the margin between the pithead price and the figure that he pays, he comes up against a series of contradictory explanations. The owners point to their selling prices and their profit and loss accounts. The railway companies produce figures that enable tho ratio of freight charges to purchaser’s price to be established with accuracy. The selling agents, through whom the general public draws its supplies, produce figures' purporting to show that their net profit per ton represents only a small percentage of the price charged to the consumer. And after the closest analysis of the figures put forward by these three sets of interests concerned, fhere' is still a wide and unexplained gap.

A Valuable Service. “Even If only for the reason that the real profits made by the Industry are used by both sides as decisive arguments in wage discussions, it is essential that conjecture should give place to knowledge, and that certainly should take the place of estimates and guesswork. Here is a matter in which the accountancy profession might render a valuable service to the community. In this connection, it is to be emphasised that the miners' case is largely based on the contention that the published profit figures whether of individual colliery undertakings or for the industry as a whole, afford no reliable index, since, it is claimed, the real profits are largely made by subsidiary selling organisations to which the coal-owners sel) at a low figure. It should not bp impossible for a scientific and Impartial Inquiry to prove or disprove this assertion, which has an obvious and vital connection with the whole question of wages."