FUEL RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 234, 4 October 1927, Page 10

FUEL RESEARCH.

PROGRESS IN DOMINION.

PROGRAMME OF WORK.

LEVY BY COAL OWNERS,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Monday.

Important recommendations submitted by the Fuel Research Committee regarding research work on New Zealand coal were approved to-day by Cabinet. They arc as under: —

That a general levy be made by the Coalmine Owners' Association to provide funds for setting up a laboratory and staff, and that the amount raised, £1000, be subsidised by the Government from the vote for research, making £2000 a year in all, for a period of three years. That the research work of the laboratories be controlled through a committee consisting of three representatives of the Coal Mineowners Association, together with three nomineees of the Council Qf Scientific and Industrial Research, the committee to submit quarterly progress reports to the Research Council and.the Coalmine Owners' Association.

A programme of work is to be followed as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made. Steps are to be taken to ut>tain and collate all information regarding coal utilisation processes which have been tried in other countries, together with physical and chemical properties of New Zealand coal, and to place this information at the disposal of the cqmmittee.

A survey of New Zealand coals is to be made with- the object of determining in respect of each coal the recoverable values of by-products and the possibilities of utilising each coal most economically for fuel purposes. The survey is to be a continuation of the work already done by Dr. Maclaurin, at the Dominion Laboratory, and Professor Denham, at Canterbury College.

The work of coal investigation' being carried on at Canterbury College by Mr. Hickson, as to the coking and oil properties of New Zealand coal and blends of &ew Zealand coal, is to be completed. After the data have been accumulated from the tests, the committee will be in a position to advise whether large-scale tests on New Zealand coals are worth trying in England or elsewhere. The mines are to be sampled for dust and the samples are to be subjected to physical analysis and ash determination, and a report is to be prepared on each mine as to dust condition.