Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1920. COAL SUPPLIES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9291, 12 August 1920, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 1920. COAL SUPPLIES.

lii spite of the fact that 'increased supplies of coal have been received by Ashburton merchants during* the last few days, it is to be feared that * a marked and permanent improvement of the supplies throughout the Dominion need not be looked for by the community. There is undoubtedly a feeling that the leaders of the men are anxious to ; keep the coal production at a ; very low point, because it gives , them and" other Labour extre- . mists an invaluable lever in the I event of serious industrial trouble ' occurring in this country. The . miners themselves appear to suf- ■ fer from periodical outbursts of ■ dissatisfaction, and a stoppage of [ work is resorted to often upon . the most flimsy excuse.■. For in- > stance, a little while ago the men ; engaged in one of the Waikato ' mines refused to work because '.. oil had been, supplied instead of the usual skip grease, notwith- [ standing they were told-by the ' mine maiiager that it was impos- > sible to obtain grease, and in any ■ case the oil supplied was more 1 costly. Trouble has arisen at the State mine on the West Coast because the Eailway Department refused to make "satisfactory arrangements for the carriage of the miners on the railway." An Auckland report published yesterday stated that the output from the three Auckland collieries was not up to normal. As a matter of fact, it has never been, satisfactory since the go-slow policy commenced in June, 1919, notwithstanding the fact that the national agreement made between the parties some months ago stipulated that the go-slow policy should be abandoned. There is no doubt that the industries of the Dominion are being restricted in their' development on account of the shortage of coal. In 1914 the country ilsed about 2,000,000 tons of coal, of which nearly. 1,500,000 tons were mined in the Dominion and rather more than 500,000 tons were imported. In 1919 the coal mined in ISTew Zealand was about 921,000 toils and that imported 455,500 tons, or 430,000 tons less than in 1914. ; Up to May of this year the coal available from all sources was 795,736 tons, which is 57,790 tons less than the amount for the corresponding period of last-year. Of this deficit our own mines are responsible for a falling oq of 111,503 tons, 70 per cent, of this reduction being hard coal, which is _ most essential foi\ our industries. Increased importations alone prevented disaster., for the imports in the first five months of the year showed an increase of 53,700 tons. These figures show the alarming position of our coal supply. In 1914 -we produced threequarters of the coal required, but recently the output has been less than half the amount consumed in 1914, and we are going from bad to worse. Even if we were sure of being able to import enough coal to supply what we do not produce the position would not be satisfactory, for imported coal is very dear and a strike at Newcastle or in the shipping- business would immediately land us in difficulties. It is estimated that, to .satisfactorily meet its requirWii'.<uts for hard coal, the Dominion ik-vls over 2,000,000 tons per aiuiun, which exceeds the present pro-^ duction by over 1,000,000 tons. A review oi'these and oilier facie leads to the conclusioTi that .'Nov.' Zealand is leading a K-m.d-io-. mouth existence in tlio rn-'i !;(•;• of coal supply. The provision of j hydro-electric power offers some (

relief in the future, but not for four or five years and if our industries and population increase as tkey should, the new power available will probably be absorbed, and leave the demand for coal as great as ;ever ; . The Government should concentrate its efforts . on hydro-electric ' power development and should take full advantage of the eminently fine resources of the Dominion in this particular respect. In the meantime, we require immediateiy the doubling of the coal output in this country. . ": : ■„• .. v