COAL, POWER, AND ROADS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19104, 13 September 1927, Page 9

COAL, POWER, AND ROADS.

N.S.W. MINISTER'S TOUR. EUROPE AND U.S.A. [THE PRESS Special Service.] AUCKLAND, September 12. New South Wales is alleged to be losing 65 per cent, of its coal owing to present methods of production, and one of the objects of an extensive tour abroad by Mr J. M. Baddeley, Minister for Mines, Labour, and Industry, in the Lang Government, was to investigate methods adopted in other countries with a view to. checking wastage. Mr Baddeley has been nearly seven months away from Australia, and has visited Italy, Germany, Holland, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. He visited numerous coal fields, and he considers there is more oil in the coals of New South Wales than in any other coals he has seen. < . . . There were great possibilities in tlie by-products of coal, possibilities that as yet had only been touched in New South Wales, said Mr Baddeley, and he anticipated the report he \roulU make to the Government would be of great assistance. _ " Another matter investigated by alt Baddeley was electrical development. This will also be the subject of a report, and he was not inclined for this reason to say much about it. Ho stated that it was their object to try to produce cbeaoer electricity, thus helping industry. "It was further hoped to produce natural gas. . Roads also interested the Minister. He said there was a project in New South Wales to construct a concrete highway from Sydney to Newcastle, a distance of ICO miles. Concrete was now largely favoured abroad, but he beiieved it had its limitations, and should be put down only under certain conditions. Mr Baddeley is a strong supporter of the Lang Government, and he is convinced that the Lang Government will be returned to office at the forthcoming elections. Be will be the official Labour candidate for Cessnock seat in the Maitland coalfields. He stated that he was very much impressed with Germany, adding that the country was recuperating in a wonderful manner after the war. He received the greatest hospitality everywhere he went, and gathered the impression that the great majority of Germans were friendly disposed towaiil Great Britain, and especially toward Australia.,