COAL AT HOME.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13449, 22 November 1907, Page 7

COAL AT HOME.

: il ! ' ;: sliort tune ago the London- cable messages advised tnat tne Chancellor of the Exchequer denounced tlia coal dutiic. Home exenanges relerrea' to these at length. A great deal of nonsense '{says the Morning' .Leader of September 10) has been. written during the "pr-fit few weeks about the price ot coal, in the in.erests of the Opposition it lias been exp-.aihed, with dehgntful simplicity, how. ilia rise in price is. due, like-all. other evi'i?, to the Liberal' Uoyernnu-nt, which ■ has mischievously taken off i he export tax arid given a gratuity to the " foreigner." The tine facts., of the situation were explaine.t with great -clearness and fairrie.'s in the Times Financial and Commercial Supplement of September 9. The ■ reason for the . increase in price, the Times points out, is threefold—namely, "the industrial activity- all over the world, the active movement in shipping requiring heavy - -plenishing of the coal depots abroad, and the dislocation in the mining industry in Germany. It is a curious fact that in tlieseven months Germany lias taken from us, direct and via Holland 1 and .Belgium, about- two and a-half million tor.i>' more than last year. So that ilia removel of the export tax has enab'.ed u.3 to recover the markets which German sea-borne" coal won fiom us while the impost was in force. Thus our exports to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France, and Italy have materially increased this year. At the same, tinia the extra four or five million tons required to satisfy the increased • export- demand would, without doubt, have been available for the home market, and this fact "may accentuate the. outcry against the -export of our national coal wealth. The answer to that (says tlie Times) is very simple: ."If we had not this coal-'.to send away we should not need it at honve, for our industries would be decadent. Coal conctitutes more than three-quarters of our total exports in bulk and probably three-fourths of our .coal exports aie carried in British vessels, which but for coal would have no outward cargoes to carry at all. It is bulk which givvt> tlie shipowner freights. In order to bring us wheat and, wool and cotton and timber and iron ore and other material for our industries from abroad the v-CGsels would have to go out in ballast and, therefore, they would have to charge double homeward freights to compensate for the double voyage. That would make our raw material, and necessaries of. life so .dear that we could not compete with other countries/ Again, if ships could: not- earn homeward freights to compensate for the lack of export cargoes, they would not be built at all, and a large number of our tramp fleet are built solely for the purpose of coal carrying. In that cni=e our shipbuilding industry would descend to the level of a'thirdrate Power; and the shipbuilding 'industry is our largest consumer of iron and steely the producer* of which are in turn our largest- consumers of coal. In 1906 some 251,067,000 tons of coal were raised

in the-United'Kingdom, aha of that- quantity 58,198,C00e tons (including the coal: equivalent of' coke and patmt fuel) were exported. and 18,690.000 tons were ■ ;upplied for. the- use of , steamers in the 'oreign trade.- If we had hot exported luse 58,090,000 tons, where would the foreign trade be? Ouv exports -of coal', .-.ve lepeafc, amount to about 75 per cent. In wnglit of all . our exports, the other !5 per cent, consisting chiefly of valuable roods of small weight. But, our imports consist merely of btdky and heavy qoiiinodities. needing roomy vessels—ju.-t ucli 'vecsels as take away. our .coal. A teamer going out for. say, a cargo of •ice at Rangoon, or on-, of iron ore at Bilbao, can bring these ne.ctclaries home .t freights we can afford to pay only by jetting, outward "cargoes of coal. Then i.' must be remembered that a. viry large proportion of our coal exports is actually or the consumption of British . ve.'i-.eV: oaling abroad and by British plantation . ind factory owners abroad: Moreover, if it were not for. the large, output rendrreii; possible by. the export trade the collievi,.: jou'.d not be, worked so regularly to full rapacity; consequently th? average cost >f production would be-cnaised, and coal .vould be dearer, and not cheaper, without than with the export trade. While, however, we cannot do without our coal export trad;, and while it is foolish to, decry it- a,s prejudicial to our industrial and individual interests it is quite true, that the xpor's may tempoiarily expand too largely, and too suddenly for our indri?hrial comfort. And that appears to be the ca?e just now. The consolation for .lie home consumer is that the abnormal foreign pressure :g passing off, and that,; while shipments may be maintained dur, ing the next three months or-/o, - there will probably, be ,an easing- of the home aiaiket before the winter, is over, even though there, may be a further- advance in house coal bi'fore that time comes.