The Trade Returns for. January are satisfactory in so far
as they show increases in the totals of imports and eXports. The higher increase ..is* in import's, and Puts' the balance more against us. However, the imports include increased quantities of raw mitterialS which is a hopeful sign. One of the few exports in which there iaa, decline is coal. Mit on all sides-We hear Of a slight; very slight, improve- ment in the coal trade. There areroore Orders for futnre export ; whether at- profitable-prices or not, we cannot Say ;* and the bitter Weather* haS 'stimulated the burning Of house coal. It is the more to be regretted that there has been trouble in getting to *work in a certain Welsh .pit.. It is ' knOwn that in - the 8outh WaleS field relations between_ the managers' and the- miners are lesS satisfactory- than elsewhere. There is intransigeance and bitterness on both These* confirm the opiniOn; ill-informed may be, butnone the less rife among other classes of workers; agricultural labourers, for instance, that the mining industry 'cares nothing for the rest of the country at whose expenie, as well as . at its Own, it squabbles. Fortunately those who have hastened to relieve by their charity the palpable misery that exists in the coal-fields haVe not stayed to inquire too nicely how the distress arose. But if relief is not to be made unnecessarily difficult for' its organizers, the coal industry must • for its Dim' welfare and . good fame, refrain from blazoning its squabbles in public. .
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