The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-08 00:00:00

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SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1873.

COAL.

As might have been cagily foreseen, the
enormous price of coal is having a very serious
effect on the manufactures and industry of the
country. In the iron districts the price has
become in some cases prohibitive, awl a large
number of the puddling furnaces have been
blown out, or shortly will be so if no unexpected
fall of prices take place. In the cotton districts
some of the mills are running short time front
this same cause, and it is probable that this
costly economy, this ruinous saving, will be still
more largely resorted to. And in hundreds of
minor industries, in wholesale and retail trades,
the enormous cost of coal is repressing activity
and speculation, adding to the cost of produc-
tion, and thus adding to the expense of commo-
dities generally, or, in other words, lo the al-
ready burde..some cost of living. Let us quote
one instance of this. Mr. Corbett, of the Stoke
salt wizi:s. Worcestarehire, ways that the con-
sumption of coal at these works is nearly 2,000
tons a week, or about 100,000 tons a year, and
tli it within a comparatively short period the
advance at the pit's month of the description of
fuel he consumes has exe,,,,led 300 per cent., i
and conseginntly a larg, proportaou of these
works has for inn 'o sttuding for fuel.
This no douet is a s,,rn .t xeepiienal case.
but it is indisputable t,oo in hundreds of in-
stances the enormous price of fuel is having a
very seriously depressing effect on nor menn-
factures and inehistri il pursuits. There is how-
ever, one consolation in all this—that an almost
famine price having to some extent acted es a
prohibition and resulted in disuse, teout;ll lint
for 41 time the decreased demand, as far as it
acts will time,
to a de,rease of prices. The
c eoal-merchants, and colliers, who
are lau4 awaiting in high rates, may, after all,
over-reach themselves, and perhaps ere long will
find that a reduction of prices in all departments
will be their best policy in the long ran. To
what extent these parties are severally charge-
able with the present ruinous rates we shall not
attempt to decide, but it will scarcely he disputed
that all are to some extott answerable for the
present unhealthy and unnatural state of the
coal market. The colliery proprietors have
natitrally takea the wlvantage of an enormou
demand ; the coal-merchants have done the
same; while the colliers have made the high
rates obtained by coal-owners one excuse for an
lucre,' ied eenined for wages. And each party
professes to have special reasons for the high
rates that prevail. A leading London coal-
merchant, for example, at ties that the net profits
of tho trade, provided the business is done with
strict honesty is every partieultr, does not aver-
age more than from Is to 2s per ton. How
many, we wonder, will beim: this ? There is
another strong iuterert Celt tends to keep up the
price of coil, ,ttet that is the railway int-r, Fe. A
correlmudiolt of a London contemp,rary ,tates
that on app!vin, to t.::ft North West, ru itilo :1

Si to the 4p'rree fo. i which they would convoy him
a railway track load of coals from Atherstoue to
the 'Metropolis, he was toll that the company
could not bring thetn at all unless he was a
registered trader. He very properly urges that
ParHatuent ehoul 1 compel railway comp Mice to
carry coal, to London, as they do ell ether
r 1,, for ,'1 persons aik. This is feasible
The railvay companies are legally
amott c trrieri ; thy list,m almost e monopoly
. I ca nog° ; and tit: y have no rig'it to tiles rat,
c“or to the mitional imitcy of Ire tied
institate a system of pr

iri for their' c

1111,110.41.%, for city particular intgest.
The floue, of CO moos ,-01ffillittee, :tppointed
a' ~f Mr. Mundell t, will inquire
_ .
i• '

c

w,ll known. Ta
.lo t!,-..) al, in lealia.;
elks for the exi.tintt
!!•1..1,..V CO AIM. I
turo f r price,; to

r thre

lirer:tql-to,vard
alre Ltly the
'U) have to do'
.re now reap.
gaiii niay

i

till
.1. All w

ut their tn

no b f I.mc:on. an old saying
that ther.: ara a in the sea as eve
c;CC eat ef i I there lie er),Aps as gond
co d.ti v • ,v as any that have
heoa a Acov., ;. s?va vo ii hue already
been foiled in re!..fings ire the presence of
coil was provi.wAy nctld. FOT C%alii
7.000 aercs of c03.1-liel,i I s k.en diAeovere in
SwedLn„lnd Sovt dish companiea re
Mem'. to Ilk i:. Co.!, to, i.e: beim f :end to
exit in Dent.' ok, Jutionri, aid other parts of
the north of Europe ; and in our colonies, and
even in our own country, coal has been found
simply because it has been searched for. We
may safely depend upon it that such investiga-
tions will go on, and will aisaredly be crowned
as-it a !Awe or ie.s 'gleam:. Con! i, a permanent
Iv,. f s f price, and

'cum waiiy Lit,Urto titimon.ed fields it will in
mune ultimo be produeed.