§ MAJOR WARINGasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that miners to-day, with the percentage and coal selling at £3 to £4 per ton f.o.b., are not gaining as much per shift in proportion as when the coal was selling at 9s. 9d. per ton f.o.b.; and, in view of the fact that the owner is only supposed to get 1s. 2d. per ton in profit, can he state where the differences go?
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§ Sir A. GEDDESI am aware that the statement made in the first part of the I question is true of individual collieries, but not of the country as a whole. For this year it is intended that coal-owners will only be entitled to retain 1s. 2d. per ton raised, and legislative proposals to give statutory effect to this intention will be introduced at an early date. As was explained in the Debate on the 4th November, the profits due to the excess of export prices over home prices are in part applied as a subsidy to coal consumed inland. In addition, they are applied in relief of collieries which are adversely affected by the conditions under which the industry is now carried on. Any excess thereafter would go to the Exchequer in reduction of the amount paid out by the Treasury on account of coal miners' wages in the earlier part of the year.