SOUTH AFRICAN COAL MINLNG.
No reference was made by Sir Edmund Davis, the Chairman of the Wankie Colliery Company, at the meeting on Tuesday, to the effect upon the company or upon the position of South African -industry of the. difference in the value of the South African and the. British pound, and in the year covered by the report, the colliery companies suffered as much as the Base Metal mining industry, for prices of base metals receded to such a low level as to cause severe restriction of mining operations, the company's sales of coal and coke amounting to 576,380 tons and 65,856 tons, as compared with 855,088 tons and 97,855 tons in the previous year. 'Thanks to econo- mies, however, the company was able to show a profit balance of £139,822, and also to pay a dividend of 121 per cent. as compared with 171 • per cent. The Chairman did not think that the reduction in output would be of long duration, as, ,with an increased price for copper, the Union Miniere du Haut :Katanga and the Chemin de Fer du Bas-Congo au Katanga would, no doubt, add to their requirements, and the /company 'was beginning to derive some benefit from the very large expenditure incurred so as to be in a position to meet the full demands of the Northern Rhodesian Copper Companies with whom they had entered into contracts for the whole of their
supplies for the next thirteen years. A. W. W.
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