Concern About Coal Compensation

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 24

Concern About Coal Compensation

(From Our Own Reporter)

WESTPORT, May 21.

The Buller Electric Power Board is concerned about compensation for extensive work done in strengthening the supply to Stockton for the heavy machinery which would have been necessary to produce coal for the New Plymouth power station.

Much equipment was purchased by the board after the Mines Department requested a boost in the circuit, and extra staff was engaged for ' the work. ! Work was stopped only recently by a direction of the department pending a deci- - sion on the type of fuel to i be used at New Plymouth. - The Government decided on i Wednesday to use gas or oil I instead of coal. 1 The board’s chairman (Mr • G. G. Hawes) said it had been stated verbally that compen- ■ sation would be made for the i work done, but nothing had : been put down in writing. I Already a considerable ■ amount had been spent on the project. ; The Buller County Council Halso spent a large sum of I money in surveying building :l sites said to be required when i the first elaborate scheme i' was announced by the late ■ Minister of Mines (Mr ■; Shand). It was then esti-

mated that at least 300 homes would be required to accommodate the extra mining force. The future of the $600,000 electric shovel, ordered from the United States to extract coal at Stockton for New Plymouth, is uncertain, but it is understood that, as it has not been despatched the order can be cancelled. The shovel was to have reached New Zealand late this year.

The Commissioner for the West Coast (Mr D. B. Dallas) said in Greymouth today that in spite of the loss of the

New Plymouth order he was completely optimistic about the future of Buller. He believed the district could look forward to a more secure basis for its economy.

Those involved in development work in Buller should have no reason to regret going ahead, he said. ,“They will be congratulating themselves before long that for once they got ahead of rising costs and inflation.” Mr Dallas said coal had run true to form. “It has been a shaky prop to the economy of the region for a long time,” he said. “I am sorry, of course, that it has not held on just a little longer, but all is not lost.”

He said there were many lines of development under study, such as ilmenite sand, wood chips and pulp. The question of deep-water shipping facilities was being studied by highly competent major institutions, and some of the studies were proceeding at the fastest rate possible, spurred on by market prospects. . “The thing now is not to try to put the clock back, and struggle against the inevitable, but to apply all available energy in improving and expanding on activities within the day-to-day capacity of local enterprises and people,” he said.

“During the next one or two years there will be more to gain by concentrating on greater efficiency and expansion within the existing economy than by expending needless effort in trying to hasten the arrival of major new developments. “Buller should join the Westland provincial district. It could then use the regional motto, ‘The best is yet to be’," In Wellington, the Save Manapouri committee .today welcomed the Government’s announcement that natural gas or oil would be used to fuel the New Plymouth station, the Press Association reported. A committee member, Sir Jack Harris, said the committee hoped that the decision would mean the development of the Maui gas field. Any move towards making the North Island self-sufficient in power supplies without disfiguring the landscape with hydro schemes was to be welcomed, he said.