Coal-Research Offer

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 26

Coal-Research Offer

(From Our Own Reporter) WESTPORT, Sept. 11,

Two private coalmine owners propose to offer the Coal Research Association a margin of their profit to help finance further research into the uses of coal.

They are Mr T. Moynihan, of Westport, who is associated with the Cardiff mine at Seddonville, and his son, Mr D. Moynihan, who works an open-cast working in King Country. They said today that they planned to call on officers of the association in Wellington this week, to make their offer.

Mr D. Moynihan said it was essential, in the interest of coal, that more use be found for it, whether in ordinary or crushed form. This was the only way to counter the competition from oil.

On a b.t.u. basis, coal was at least twice as efficient as oil. If more uses were found for it. the industry

could make a much bigger contribution to New Zealand’s economic life than it did at present. The Coal Research Association was making tests and investigations into the prospects of wider use for coal. The Moynihans said they hoped a donation would help the association to increase its work.

Mr D. .Moynihan said crushed coal had great potential. It could, if correctly processed and handled, be transported and distributed more cheaply than oil, and, at the same time, could give more economic and more efficient operation. The large new boiler unit Installed at Waikato Hospital was an example of this. Mr T. Moynihan is a pioneer of hydraulic mining in the Buller area, and his son has used similar methods in his Waitowhenua mine near Ohura, where a production of 50 tons a man daily has been achieved.