The Press Tuesday, February 1, 1921. The Coal Question.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17058, 1 February 1921, Page 6

The Press Tuesday, February 1, 1921. The Coal Question.

While the decision for peace or war ia the coal industry still hangs trembling in the' balance, the Prime Minister has made public a memorandum of great interest that he has received from the Coal Controller regarding the output and importation of coal during the jiast year. The returns of the output of New Zealand mines are apparently not quite complete, since they do not include the figures of some of the small mines, mainly in Otago.. But theso are. noffc of great importance, their' product, brown cgal or lignite, being ; absorbed locally for doipestio purposes. The essential facts in the report are that the New Zealand output of coal last year was 120,980 tons less than in 1919, bituminous or semibittiminous coal, suoh as is needed by the railways and other Bervices, and in our- industries, and greatly desired by housewives, accounting for 112,311 tons of the deficit. As the output for 1919 was 1,847,848 tons, that of last year is thus seen to be 1,726,868 tons. The following figures give the total amount of coal and shale raised att 4 nually in the Dominion since the year 1900:

It will lie seen from this table that the output for last yean was tho smallest since 1905, the decrease as compared with 1919 following the trend that has been a feature, of the annual returns for the past four years. There was a period, and a fairly long ono, in the liistorj* of tho coal industry, when each year showad an Increased output. It lasted from 1878, the first year in which the comparison was made, with one exception, 1889, until 1910. Then followed alternate' decreases and increases until 1916, thence onward the figures havo shown a continuous decline. The production from seven of the largest mines on the West Coast and "Waikato districts fell by 135,515 tons, and ♦gainst this can be placed only an jncieased output from three mines amounting altogether to some 23,000 tons, of which the State mine at Liverpool wa3 responsible for the largest sliafe.

On the other hand the quantity of coal imported during last year was a record for the Dominion, amounting to 646,019 tons, an increase of 190,525 tons over tho amount imported in the previous year. Aloro than a third of tho total quantity was brought in during tho last three months of the year, owing in part to tho demands of tho Railway

Department. "We bought at a high' price coal from Australia, the United States, Canada, and Japan, and a big cargo is now on its way out from Wales. The Coal Controller submits that it is a serious matter that the Dominion should have to pay for more than 600,000 tons of foreign coal in !a yeair. It i&, indeed, from more than one point of view. The imported coal probably cost us considerably more than would Lave had to be paid for an equal quantity of Now Zealand coal, and if only half the quantity imported had been mined in the Dominion, many more thousands of pounds would have been kept in the country. It is wholly unsatisfactory that the running of our trains, the carrying on of our industries, and the comfort and convenience of large numbers of private people should be dependent, in an increasing degree, on our ability to get coal from overseas. The remedy, in the Coal Controller's opinion, is that the Government shall induce more men to enter the mines. That would certainly help to solve the problem, if the new-comers did not, as would probably be the case, succumb to the "go-slow" habit. But the whole report is the strongest possible argument in favour of the Government spending every shilling it can possibly spare on the development of the Dominion's hydro-electric power. We shall probably never —certainly not in this generation—be able to do without coal altogether, and a good many people, sufficiently old-fashioned to prefer an open fire to the best electric heater that was ever invented, do not want to. But the knowledge that the electric current was available, if needed, would give the community a feeling of confidence that nowadays it can never enjoy.

Year. Tons. 1901 •mm 1,239,686 1902 •M 1,365,040 1903 1,420,229 1904 1,537,838. 1905 , r . 1,585,756 1906 — 1,729,536 1907 — 1,831,009 1908 mr , 1,860,975 1909 |t) W-. 1,911,247 1910 2,197,362 1911 2,066,073 1912 — 2,177,615 1913 — 1,888,005 191,4 . 2,275,614 1916 2,208,624 1916 2,257,135 1917 2,068,419 1918 , t| 2,034,250 1919 1,847,848 1920 1,726,868