NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19311, 26 April 1926, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

BRITAIN'S COAL INDUSTRY". J lie trouble in the coal industrv can be attributed to the decline in sales for export, the falling off in demand in the home market, and the decline in productivity both relatively to the number of persons engaged in the industry and absolutely as compared with the aggregate output of 1913, says .Mr. Prank Hodges, tho secretary of the Miners' International Federation, in an article published in the London Daily News a few weeks ago. "Tho decline in exports is due to the growth of coal production throughout the world, the gradual limitation of markets for countries in the northern hemisphere, the extended use of oil in many counfries and the development of power from resources other than coal in countries where no coal exists. 1 lie decline in the home market is due to the falling off in general industrial activity and the difficulty of disposing of manufactured British goods in tho world market, due to universal trade depression. One of tho startling facts brought out during the sitting of the Coal Commission is that our present output is down to the level of the output of 20 years ago, while tho number of persons employed in the industry is upwards of a quarter of a million more than it was then. I venture the view that no other industry in tho country is similarly situated. Wages costs are up by 87 per cent,., and other costs are up by 138 per cent, as compared with 1913. No accurate information is available as to tho increased costs of transport and distribution, but these in all probability will be found to have increased the price to the consumer more than the increased pit, costs." REDUCING THE COST OF COAL. A number of suggestions for the saving of the industry are mado by Mr. Hodges. "The most direct technical method of accomplishing this is by increasing tho quantity of coal-cutting machines and conveyers arid the mechanical appliances for handling tho coal from the coal face to tho waggon," ho says. "This, indeed, is imperative. . . . Wherever possible men's effectivo working time at tho coal face should bo extended by minimising tho time it takes tho workmen to get to their working pjlaces from tho pit bottom, and this can bo done by improved mechanical conveyance, more particularly in mines that have a fair length of life before them and where the capital outlay would be justified." Mr. Hodges also recommends efforts to reduce tho cost of power for running tho mines by establishing central power plants owned by groups of mines and to cheapen tho cost of stores and timber by central buying direct from the suppliers. 110 regards tho use of private coal waggons, which liavo to be returned to their owners' mines, as an unnecessary expense. Great economies in distribution could also be effected if tho delivery of domestic and industrial coal could be unified and co- ' ordinated in tho various municipal areas. "Finally, if colliery companies would begin to organiso a system of direct selling to tho consumers upon a co-operative basis, avoiding tho separate selling agency and many unnocessary factors and merchants," says Mr. Hodges, "tho revenue at tho pits would increase, tho consumers would get a direct benefit, and the demand for coal would tend to strengthen and stabilise.".