THE COAL WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21503, 29 May 1933, Page 13

THE COAL WAR

Sir, —Will you kindly permit mo to draw attention of all interested in tho Waikato mining industry to the stupid policy at present being pursued by the various coal companies. Tho older companies are trying to squeeze the younger ones out, and are endeavouring to create a feeling that there are too many mines in the Waikato. But the most prominent company in this coal war is the last one to open up a big coalfield, namely, tho Mac Donald Coalfield. If we analyse the position carefully tho statement of there being too many mines is open to question. There is approximately £OOO,OOO invested in tho Waikato mining industry (excluding tho carbonisation works) and tho average output is somewhere about 600,000 tons per annum, so there is approximately £1 invested for each ton of coal produced. A profit of only Is per ton would pay a dividend of 5 per cent on all tho capital invested in (he industry. It is hard to know why they will not amalgamate, unless it is because some of the highly-paid and influential commission agents are opposing it. Instead of amalgamating they go on spending as much as 3s or 4s a ton (15 per cent to 20 per cent of the whole capital in the industry) in travellers' fees, commissions and so on. Tho directors in each of the companies mistrust and blame the other companies, and so they carry on their stupid policy, whereas an amalgamation would give the shareholders a fair spin, would enable the price of the coal to be kept down permanently to give tho consuming public a fair spin, and would givo the miners hero in Huntly and other parts of the Waikato a fair spin by regular employment. Experience here this last few weeks has proved conclusively that, despite the advance of hydro-electric schemes, there is still a good demand for Waikato coal, if the price is kept within the reach of the consuming public. Huntly. W. C. Daviks, m.i.m.e.