A meeting of shipowners was held at Sunderland on the
2:3rd ultimo, to consider a communication received from the Secretary of the
Coal-trade, to the effect that the coalowners of the district intended to raise the price of coals 2s. a chaldron from the 1st of October. Mr. Caleb Wilson was called to the chair. He said the subject before them was of great importance— He was aware that the coalowners could set what price they pleased upon their coals ; hut if the commodity in the market was abundant, the price must necessarily fall. Ile would remind the meeting, that a large coal-field would soon be opened out at no great distance from the port of Sunderland, and that a new colliery, about two miles from the line of the Sunderland and Durham Railway, would also be brought into operation. He considered that it would be advisable to extend the line of the railway to that colliery, by which the coals might be brought to their port, and produce a competition in the wholesale market of the best coals.
A discussion of some length ensued ; in the course of which it ap- peared, that on a former occasion a deputation of the shipowners of the port had waited on the coalowners, when regulations were agreed to, which had so far answered all the purposes required, and from which the coalowners had derived great advantages, although the regulations were attended with a considerable degree of delay to shipping in the port of London from the mode of sale and delivery. By these regula. tions a certain quantity of coals was allowed to be vended in the market by the factors on each day of sale ; of which quantity three-fifths were allotted from the Tyne collieries, to be brought to market by ships be- longing to the port of Shields, and two-fifths allotted to collieries which vend their produce at Sunderland, and were brought to market by Sunder- land ships. The meeting considered that there was no necessity what- ever for an advance in the price of coals by the coalowners ; but as the
shipowners had no control over the coalowners, if they were so disposed, should the intended advance take place, the existing regulations would, of course, on the part of the shipowners, become null and void, and they would then be at liberty to vend their coals in whatever manner they thought proper.
Resolutions were passed declaring that the advance in the price of coals nullified all existing regulations, and the meeting then broke up. The public is not likely to be a loser by the dissolution of this partner- ship of coalowners and shipowners.
Previous page
