SUPPLIES OF GAS COAL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26524, 12 September 1951, Page 8

SUPPLIES OF GAS COAL

“ NO IMMEDIATE NEED FOR ANXIETY”

MERCHANTS STILL BEHIND WITH ORDERS

There was no immediate need for anxiety concerning supplies of gas coal in Christchurch, said the engineer to the Christchurch Gas Company (Mr E. F. Gorman) yesterday. “Everything possible is being done to ensure that supplies are maintained. We are in constant touch with mine and railways operators, and all the coal available is brought here as quickly as possible.” Up to 11 a.m. yesterday, the company had received all the coal consigned to it before September 7, Mr Gorman said. That meant that there were about 700 tons in transit from the West Coast. '

“We used to carry' about 7000 tons (six weeks’ supply), but this stockpile was reduced to almost nothing during the war,” said Mr Gorman. “The most we have ever had in reserve since then is a few hundred tons, enough for two or three days’ operations at this time of the year. We haven’t even got as much as that here 'now—we are practically living from hand to mouth, using the coal as it comes in, but there is no cause for worry since the supply is assured.” The company’s retorts were at present consuming about 150 tons of coal a day, said Mr Gorman. The amount used varied according to the effect public demand was having on the gasometers, and this in turn varied according to the weather.

Domestic Supply Coal merchants in the Canterbury district were also living from hand to mouth, said the secretary of the Canterbury Coal Merchants’ Association (Mr A. O. Hahn). "It will be the end of the year at least before most merchants have caught up on the deficit in filling their orders caused by the enormous less of production during the recent strike. Local suppliers are delivering coal on orders anything from three to 10 weeks old, and some of the smaller merchants are finding it very difficult to get supplies. Most, however, are slowly catching up, and they are being helped at present by the warmer weather.”

Early in every normal summer, before Christmas, most merchants got large supplies of coal stockpiled for the winter, but the necessity for using every available ton in cutting out the backlog of undelivered orders precluded their doing so this season, Mr Hahn continued. "After the New Year the mines will resume operations, but by that time the harvest will be in full swing and it will be impossible to get enough trucks to shift the coal available.”

Many householders in Christchurch had already shown that they understood the implications of this position, said Mr Hahn. “Quite a number of orders have been received for, say, three tons of coal, to be delivered any time in the autumn. To this extent, the strike will have at least one beneficial result—coal will be ordered in the spring for stockpiling by householders in plenty of time to avoid the usual pre-winter rush, which causes so much trouble to merchants and customers alike.” i Reasonably large supplies of medium coal (West Coast lignite) and slow coal (other lignites, from such places as Southland and South Canterbury) were available, said Mr Hahn. The acutest shortage was in supplies of fast coal, though the little that was available was of high quality.