THE PROPOSED DUTY ON COAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9048, 8 May 1888, Page 6

THE PROPOSED DUTY ON COAL.

The Wellington Press is publishing a series of vigorous articles in review of the tariff proposed by the Protectionist Conference. In its last one, on the proposed duty of 5s on coal, it says : —" But conceive for a moment what this means. It means 20 to 25 per cent added to the cost of every fire in our hearths, of the fuel of every locomotive engine, of every stationary engine, and of every forge, and an additional charge for every single thing in the manufacture of which coal is used. It means raising the price of gas 6d per 1000 feet. It means a gas tax on the people of Wellington alone of £1800 a year. It means a tax on all the household fires and all the furnace fires of Wellington of £6000 a year ; and this, forsooth, is ' raising wages,' and 'giving employment,' and ' encouraging native industries.' Why, it is gross, palpable, scandalous fraud. Who on earth is to benefit by this ? Let us for a moment examine into the collieries at Greymouth and Westport. We are asked to subsidise the colliery owners by £120,000 a year. Let us see what we, the colonists of New Zealand, have already been persuaded into doing for these particular Protectionist pete at Westport and Greymouth. We have built two railways for them at a cost of £420,215. We have made two harbours with wharfs and quays at a cost of £141,344. ' We have endowed the harbours with the whole of the profits made on the railways, and with the whole royalties of 6d per ton from the coal fields, and with the whole of the revenues from the wharfs and quays, and with all this, the cost of works and . maintenance of the two harboure in 1886 was £07,203, and the income £34,784, showing a deficit in one year of £62,419, which, we suppose, the colony had to pay. Let us recapitulate the figures : £420,215, £141,344, and a deficit last year of £62,419, making a total of £623,978. But this is not all, besides this, the credit of the colony has been authorised by Paliament to be pledged to the extent of £750,000 for expenditure on the two harbours* with the sole and avowed object of enabling the colliery owners to get their product to market at an increased profit. All this expenditure and credit are nothing but subsidies to the colliery owners of Greymouth and Westport. Yet these Protectionists have the audacity to demand £120,000 a year more to help colliery owners in New Zealand to compete with coal brought from over 1200 miles away. It is said ' gold may be bought too dear,' and it seems to us coal may be bought too dear also. But there is something more than this. The Union Steamship Company are one of the most enterprising companies of this colony. They are excellent public servants. We all feel proud of what they have done, not only for the development of coastal trade, but of intercolonial trade, and we may boast that in its kind it is a service quite unsurpassed by that of any country. This company are doing their utmost to assist our land industries by taking their oats and other land and dairy produce to Sydney at payable rates. In order to do this they must have back freights, and one of their great back freights is coal. In 1886 we exported goods to the value of £822,361 to New South Wales, and Imported to the value of £576,601. If the ships are prevented from bringing back coal, then the company must either raise the freights on our producers or stop the trade. And why should we stop this import of coal ? It is the only check we have on the coal monopoly of this colony. If the New Zealand collieries could choke off the importation, we, the coalconsumers, should be at their mercy. The protectionists cannot make their favourite stock allegation that New South Wales coal is won by 'pauper labour.' Wages are as good, or better, in New South Wales than here. Moreover, New South Wales actually keeps our labour market up, for when there is want of employment here the surplus labour goes off to New South Wales."