The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1929. NO COALS FROM NEWCASTLE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18785, 14 June 1929, Page 8

The Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1929. NO COALS FROM NEWCASTLE.

MR H. H. STERLING, General Manager of New Zealand Railways, .made the remark in Sydney last week that, if he was after coal contracts, Newcastle would be the last place he would go to. This seems to sum up the desperate position into which the New South Wales export trade has fallen, owing largely to the high production costs in the Newcastle and other fields. High wages and high freights have reduced the Newcastle exports to a third of their former tonnage, and the trouble that now threatens a general strike has been brought about by the endeavour of the companies to reduce costs in a manner that will put the industry on the map again. Their proposal was that the men should accept a reduction of a shilling a ton, and that the railway rate and handling charges should also be reduced by a shilling, while the companies should concede a shilling themselves, making the total reduction four shillings a ton, or maybe more. The latest counter-proposal of the workers is that they should accept reduced wages providing the owners guarantee to refund the deductions if their figures as to the cost of carrying on the industry are proved to be wrong. One is bound to admit that this counter-proposal does not clarify the situation very much, and the indications are that the strike will be general by Monday. Such a strike would throw 25,000 men out of work, and would put the mines in a worse position than ever, without conferring the slightest benefit on the men. The companies say that wages have been doubled, railway freights trebled and quadrupled, and port and handling charges increased to an extent that has brought the profit-earning capacity of the mines to the vanishing point. For the past ten years there have been 300 strikes a year, and it is obvious that no industry can carry on under such a tremendous handicap. The merits of the present case, indeed, are all on the side of the companies, because it is obvious that the export trade of Newcastle must be restored if prosperity is to return to the coalfields, and the owners have made a serious effort to bring about a compromise with that object in view.

LABOUR ARITHMETIC.

THE £9OOO received for the sale of the municipal market site is to be used exclusively, according to Mr D. G. Sullivan, chairman of the Finance Committee, for the purpose of acquiring another area of land for civic purposes in a more central position. It is not surprising to learn that Mr Sullivan cannot state where it is proposed to purchase the land, or what it is to be used for. He will have great difficulty in finding any land as central or as valuable for anything near the price accepted for the section in Worcester Street. Indeed, a year ago, when an offer of £9475 for this land was refused, both Councillor Sullivan and the Mayor strongly opposed the sale on the ground that it would be impossible to get a similar property at anything like the money. Why the council, on a property market that has show'll phenomenal rises in the past twelve months, should have accepted £475 less for this property is hard to imagine. Could it have been because the council did not wish to be embarrassed with the task of finding a use for the market site when the tin sheds had been cleared away ?

CATHEDRAL SQUARE.

IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE a more unacceptable proposal for the alteration of Cathedral Square than that submitted by the representatives of the City Council, the Tramway Board, and, we are sorry to add, the Save the Square Committee. On first hlusli, indeed, the very grotesque plan evolved might be regarded as something designed solely with the idea of defeating the object of those who sought an injunction that was intended to improve the present state of affairs. The alternative now submitted, indeed, would be ten times worse than the present situation, bad as it is, and we cannot imagine that the ratepayers would sanction the plan of having two tramway shelters in place of one, and of seeing Cathedral Square consolidated more firmly than ever as a tramway depot and shunting yard. The decision of the Supreme Court that the present shelter and conveniences were trespassing on a public reserve was welcome chiefly because it paved the way for the restoration of Cathedral Square to something of its old dignity, but the alternative suggested by the conference is an attempt to observe the letter of the law (although if that is to be done, the conveniences must be shifted from the present site) while defeating every object for which the central reserve was laid out, and for which the Save the Square Committee worked. The most amazing thing about the present alter? natives is the fact, indeed, that they have been assented to in any particular by the representatives of the Save the Square Committee, for we are certain that the people as a whole would reject them on sight as an even more ghastly disfigurement of the Square tllan is brought about by the present shelter.