GLEN AFTON COLLIERY

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1931, Page 16

GLEN AFTON COLLIERY

PERIOD OF SMALL PROFITS, CAPACITY EXCEEDS DEMAND. “The cofit of developing the MacDonald mine at Glen Affton has amounted to £4G,022,” said Mr. W. Goodfellow, managing director of Glen Afton Collieries, Limit'd, at Hamilton on Tuesday. Mr. Goodfellow said the cost was somewhat more than wae anticipated, The amount was met froig the fuhds of the colliery company, and from a loan of £15,000 made by the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy’Company, Limited. The output of the two mines was 219,000 tons for the last year, as against 161,000 tons for''ff.he previous year, an increase of 35 per. cent. . A profit of £5933 had been made by Glen Afton Collieries, Limited. This profit was only a nominal one, for no provision had been made for the redemption of debentures or to repay the dairy company’s loan. A rebate of £3432 had been made to the dairy company’s suppliers.- Coal had. been sold to the dairy company’s factories and suppliers as well as to the public. The coal position, said Mr. Goodfellow, had not been very satisfactory, owing to the price-cutting that had been indulged in. There had been a pricefixing arrangement between the coal companies in the North Island, but this had broken down. A further factor bearing on prices was that the capacity of the mines bad exceeded the demand. None of the companies was making satisfactory profits and some were working at a loss.