ELECTRIFYING OF RAILWAYS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26538, 28 September 1951, Page 6

ELECTRIFYING OF RAILWAYS

PRIORITY FOR OTHER WORKS

MINISTER ADDRESSES POWER BOARDS

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 27. The Government intended to go ahead with the electrification of North Island railways as soon as possible, but because of the country’s terrific commitments essentials must come first: hydro-electric power and housing must have priority over electrification, said the Minister of Works (Mr W. S. Goosman) to the power boards’ conference to-day.

“Though harried by staff shortages, which prevented proper maintenance of rolling stock and permanent way, the Railways Department was frequently blamed for shortcomings beyond its control” he said. "The Railways Department has to tie up all the loose ends round the country,” he said. "If a ship goes into a wrong port the railways have to tranship its freight to a new destination.”

Mr Goosman added: “We are terribly short in coal production in New Zealand. The yearly production of 2,600,000 tons is not nearly enough.’’ Last year the railways imported 44,260 tons of coal costing £252,000, and fuel oil costing £840,000. This imported fuel cost the railways £390,000 more than if it had fueled its locomotives with domestic coal exclusively. If the same quantity of coal was imported at prevailing prices the extra charge this coming year would be £640,000. The latest coal shipment from India was landed at a cost of £l2 a ton. No more could be imported at that price. “We recently chartered a vessel to go to South Africa to get coal,” said Mr Goosman. “When it got there, there was no coal. It cost us £30,000 to cancel the charter, and we got nothing whatsoever out of it.” Had coal been available the King's wharf power station could have used 50,000 tons more than it did. The Evans Bay power station was 20,500 tons short. Mr Goosman said that there were no changes in the proposals he outlined last year to the power boards. “Then I invited the executive of your association to see me in Wellington,” he said. “I put these proposals before you, and you agreed to them before we made them public. We are going on with these to the best of our ability, but we have struck very serious difficulties. We had a pretty serious strike in this country, and it upset our calculations altogether. Will anyone tell me we could have done anything more to carry on with the development of these works during the strike? "We are over-committed in the works we are trying to build,” said Mr Goosman, “and when you get overcommitted every new job competes with the jobs already going on, both m manpower and materials.” He said that people had no compunction in going on to projects and offering higher wages to the staff. There was also very serious competition for materials.

AUXILIARY POWER STATIONS

GOVERNMENT’S SEARCH FOR COALFIELDS

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, September 27. ‘I have always advocated steam auxiliary power stations and I still do—if we don’t get geothermal power," said the Minister in charge of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr W. S. Goosman) to the power boards* conference to-day. He said that the Government was carrying out its promise to search for a coalfield which could be completely mechanised to feed a steam station. It was suggested that such a steam station should be put near a coalmine, but a station producing 1,000,000 kilowatts would need 350,000 tons of coal a year. At the rate coal was being produced by underground miners it would take 900 men to mine and handle the coal needed. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was looking for the ideal coalfield for a steam plant. If the time came when such a plant was needed the Government would be ready.

Answering a question on the possibility of speeding up the provision of auxiliary power stations. Mr Goosman said that this had been discussed with the executive of the power boards’ association, and it was decided that a decision should not be made until 1953. In any case, a steam station started now could not be completed within four years.

SOUTH ISLAND SUPPLY VIGILANCE COMMITTEE TO MEET A meeting of the combined power vigilance committee of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce will be held next week to consider the information about the future South Island power supply position given to the supply authorities’ conference in Auckland by the general manager of the State Hydro-electric Department (Mr A. E. Davenport). “On the face of it the position appears most unsatisfactory,” said Mr R. T. Alston, secretary of the Manufacturers' Association, yesterday. "The committee proposes to go fully into the position again.’’