PARLIAMENT PRODUCTION OF COAL

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26261, 4 November 1950, Page 8

PARLIAMENT PRODUCTION OF COAL

1949 FIGURE ONLY ONCE EXCEEDED REPORT OF MINES DEPARTMENT (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, November 3. The value of the total production of meialliferous mines, quarries and coal mines in New Zealand in 1949 was £3.617.023 compared with £7.285.892 for 1948. according to the annual mines statement tabled in the House by the Min'ster of Mines (Mr W. Sullivan) to-day. Coal production totalled 2.813,275 tons valued at £5.907.878 on the basis of 42s a ton. compared with 2.775.386 tons in 1948 valued at £4,823.102. The increase was 37.389 tons compared with 1948. and in only one previous year has the 1949 production been excelled —in 1945 when the record figure was 2,833.576 tons. The report says that since 1943 production had been maintained in the vicinity of 2.800.000 tons and indications were that it may continue at that level during the present year. The average output for each miner employed underground was 517 tons in 1949. a decrease of 29 tons compared with 1948. Overall production, including underground and open-cast mines, was 479 tons, a decrease of 18 tens compared with 1948. The number of men employed in coal mines increased during the year from 5582 to 5877. the report says. The introduction of the seven-hour day was partly resoonsible for the decrease in the output a man. but the output for each hewer shift had remained remarkably constant in recent years, indicating that the over-all decrease was caused by the greater number of men required ’in maintaining services and : transporting coal from the face to the surfac°

of Mines To maintain coal production at the present level and to meet the gradually increasing demand that must be expected, it is essential that new mines be onened up to replace mines approaching exhaustion, says the report. To this end deve’opment programmes for this year have been planned at Denniston. Stockton and wallsend. A careful survey of the southern subbituminous coalfields had revealed the existence of possible large open-cast mines which could be worked economically bv large-scale operations. Those possibilities would be fully examined.

The report says that further purchases of private coal mines by the State during 1949 had meant that only five coal mines of any consequence in New Zealand were left under private control. The total coal resources of the Dominion, according to the latest information.' are as follows:—measured, bituminous. 28.000.000 tons; sub-bi*n-minous. 52.000.000; lignite, 13,000.000; total, 93,000.000 Indicated bituin.nous 21.000.000; sub-bituminous, 45.000,000; lignite. 27,000,000. Inferred bituminous, 58.000.000; sub-bituminn-is 502.000.000; lienite. 366.000.000; total. 926.000.000 tons. The over-all total of; 1,112.000.000 tons is fairly close to the previous 1946 estimate of 1,158,000,000 tons. The total paid in general coal subsidies from May. 1940. to March 31, 1950. was £9.828,457. Other payments under the Waikato Coai Mines Emergency Regulations brought the grand total for ail forms of subsidy to £11,017,685. The report says that since all subsidies were withdrawn on May 8 as a result of Government policy the price of coal had inevitably increased. “It is felt that the abolition of the subsidy has placed the operations oi the mines on a realistic basis and given some incentive to both management and men to achieve lower costs. The whole coal industry must benefit thereby and eventually the consumer will reap the reward of a lower price for coal, says the report. Production of Bullion Production of bullion during the year 1949 totalled 317,473 ounces, valued at £890.588, a decrease of 8993 ounces and of £59,172 in value compared with 1948. The gold content of the bullion is estimated at 84,874 ounces, valued at £836.001, a decline of 9029 ounces from 1948. The decline would have been greater but for the increased price of gold which resulted from sterling devaluation. Production from alluvial mines dropped to an all-time low figure and will inevitably diminish progressively, says the report. Gold mining, however, still plays an important part in New Zealand economy by providing a modicum of foreign exchange. “It is therefore a matter of some concern that, in particular, the dredging industry has been subjected to such continuous and hostile criticism, and it is apparent that many objectors would be satisfied with nothing less 'than its extinction,” the report says.

The production of crude petroleum in New Zealand in 1949 totalled 236.463 gallons, valued at £7389. compared with 83,112 gallons, valued at £2587. in 1948. Total production to December 31 last totalled 3,986.316 gallons. Satisfactory progress had been made by the company which was sinking new wells in the Moturoa field near New Plymouth.

CONSUMER PRICES

MINISTER’S ESTIMATE OF INCREASE CHALLENGED (W«u? Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. November 3. In the House of Representatives today. Mr A. McLagan (Opposition. Riccarton) gave notice to ask the Minister in charge of the Census and Statistics Department (Mr J. R. Marshall) if he had been correctly reported this morning on the increase in consumer prices and if so. whether he would revise his statement to give the real further increase of 13.4 per cent, in food orices and 15.7 per cent, in fuel and light prices for the third quarter of this year over the increase for the first quarter. Mr McLagan said the consumers' price index showed an increase of 16 3 per cent, in food prices and 199 per cent, in fuel and light prices as compared with March. 1J49. The Minister’s method of calculation made the increases for the same period seem lower han they actually were, and he 'appeared to have made the mistake of using a larger base figure for each successive calculation, said Mr McLagan. When Government members interjected that portions of the question were a matter of opinion. Opposition members retorted that they were matters of fact.

Mr R. McKeen (Opposition. Island Bay) gave notice to ask the Minister of Labour <Mr W. Sullivan) whether, m view of the urgent necessity !n’ industrial unions to approach the Arbitration Court for increases ir wages owing to the continuous and :aoidlv increasing cost of living, the Minister would li't the restriction' which debar the industrial unions from •polying to the Arbitration Court for anv increase in wages within a year of the making of a genera! order. Mr McKean also asked that the Arbitration Court be given power to srant wage increases automatically with the increase in the cost of living di'closrd by the Government Statistician. thus removing a gross inustice to thousands of workers.