Coal

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26119, 23 May 1950, Page 4

Coal

The coal-mining conference at Dunedin last week drew attention to some disquieting facts that must be faced by the people of New Zealand. both as consumers and as the owners of a large part of the industry. According to speakers at the conference the cost of mining in New Zealand is too high (customers paying 2s a bag more for coal will agree); too much coal is wasted in the mines; and there are too many accidents. The Chief Inspector of Mines (Mr R. H. Schoen) suggested a commission to inquire into safety in the mines. The inquiry might well cover a wider field, parties larly as Mr Schoen urged that some reforms would serve both safety and economy. He raised the same matter in his annual report last year, when he said: “Thirty-six “ reports of dangerous happenings “ were made. . . . Thirty-one of “these cases were heating due to “ spontaneous combustion. . . . “ These heatings are due to our “ method of working thick seams “ and are responsible for a heavy “ loss of coal in every year, in addi- “ tion to increasing the danger of “ mine work. They will never be “ eliminated until our method of “ mining is changed ”. Presumably nothing has happened since to change his opinion. Mr Schoen, in his paper at Dunedin, mentioned specifically one way to promote both safety and economy—the wider adoption of shift work. Professor D. W. Phillips (Australia) drew attention to the reduction in the accident rate when mechanisation was increased in Britain. Mechanisation is of importance, too, in reducing costs, not only in hewing but, perhaps more importantly, in moving coal from the face. Opencast methods can be more commonly used. Hydraulic stowage, by which the workings are filled as

the coal is taken out, may be practicable in some New Zealand mines in conjunction with mechanisation, again to the advantage of safety and economy. Greater use of electricity, where safe, would also help to reduce costs. It may be, as the Superintendent of State Coal Mines (Mr C. J. Strongman) said, that the major problem of mine managers is to handle their men. The difficulty of that problem—which has apparently grown little easier with an increasing measure of nationalisation—should not discourage all concerned from doing their utmost to make the industry as efficient as possible. This was recognised by the Under-Secretary of Mines (Mr C. H. Benney) when he said that the best brains of the industry must work out how to get coal more cheaply within the limits of safety. Recent Mines Statements have touched briefly on such matters as shift work, mechanisation, and hydraulic stowage; and it is possible that the Mines Department can answer all the questions raised at the conference without an independent inquiry. The new Minister (Mr Sullivan) should assure himself that the department can do so.