COAL

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24076, 12 October 1943, Page 6

COAL

Sir,—What is wrong with the Coal Department? We have direct rail communication with the West Coast, yet one is not able to get even one bag of coal, though ordered three weeks ago. My coal merchant says the coai is being shipped to America. If that is correctf then I think it time New Zealand was given a little consideration. Yours, etc.. m} October 1, 1943. ["There is nothing wrong with the department," said the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) when the letter was referred to him. Pro-' duction this year is 70,000 tons ahead of last year, which was a record, but the demand is unprecedented. For military camps alone 1000 tons oil screened coal a week is needed; railway and industrial requirements have increased greatly, and the amount of coal required for the generation of electricity has increased by 800 per cent The difficulties of getting Australian coal are real. New Zealand is better off than any other part of the world, our inconveniences notwithstanding, and everything possible \wli be done to maintain production at its present high level. The miners are doing a magnificent job, and I believe that they will continue to do so.. We cannot look to our present miners, who are heavily worked, to give us much more coal. The Government is sparing no expense, even to _the extent of paying subsidies and taking over what might be termed derelict mines where the coal, which is so vitally necessary, is difficult to win. The coal miners of New Zealand are establishing a war record unexcelled by miners in any part of the world, ind the people of New Zealand may rest assured that anything the Government can do is being done and will be done. The suggestion; that coal is being exported to the United States is absurd. The only coal which leaves New Zealand is not screened coal but bunker coal for ships playing their part in the defence of New Zealand. J