POWER AND FUEL

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 16

POWER AND FUEL

Support For Ministry (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. March 27. The establishment of a ministry of fuel and power, to control and co-ordinate power development in New Zealand, would be of benefit to the country as a whole as well as to the coal industry, tile Coal Advisory Service Association believes. The director of the association, Mr B, Jones, said tonight that this view was shared by the coal technology panel, a sub-ccmmittee of the Coal Utilisation Council of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, which met today. "The bill introduced into Parliament last year would empower the Minister to ensure that the pattern of future fuel usage w*ould be that providing the maximum benefits to the country as a whole, and the coal industry would be happy to compete for potential markets on such terms,” he said.

"Coal can play, and Is playing, an important part in supplying the over-all energy requirements of the country. It is unfortunate that many of the plants using coal are old and obsolescent, if not obsolete. However, even in the older plants, with proper operation, the cost of producing steam can be lower than with other fuels. “There are some applications for which oil fuel is the logical choice, notwithstanding its possible higher cost. However, in many cases coal is providing a highly-eatis-factory alternative to other fuels which have to be purchased with overseas exchange, and frequently at higher costs, even on a purely local level.”