OUR COAL RESOURCES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 204, 23 May 1919, Page 8

OUR COAL RESOURCES

! PRESENT FIELDS GOOD FOR FIFTY J ~,,,;. .YEARSONLY ! PROSPECTING AND BORING . .ADVOCATED i■ • ■.- ■ ■ \ Some verr important information rei Rarding the coaj supplies of the Domin- ' ion was Riven to the Parliamentary Inj dustries • Committee yesterday by Mr. P. i G. Morgan, Director of Geological Sur- \ vevl. Mr. Morgan read the.coninnttee i , the following , statement;— .1 In IS3O Sir James Hector estimated the in workable coal in New Zealand at i 443,000,000 tons. •Hβ based this estimate I on data showing that the coal in the I KTOtind was 880,000,000 tons. In 1910, j Professor James Park estimated the amount of workable coal in New Zealand 'at 1,082,089,000 tons. In 19111 osti- • mated the proved coal in New Zealand r at 1001,000,000 tons, and the probable coal at an additional 2,385,000,000 tons. These estimates were based on ordinary '• '. mining and geologioal conventions, it I beinj? assumed that epams of bituminous j-' - . coal over one foot thiok and semi-bitum-inous seams over two feet thick could be worked.to a depth of 4000 ft., that brown coal seams over three feet thick could I be worked to a depth' of 2000 ft., and that i lignite scrims over four feet thick could I , be worked' to n depth of 1000 ft. These j assumptions, are too optimistic for New ■ Zealand coriaitione, but it was■ necessary to adopt them , in order to make coal estimates fairly comparable with those 'of other countries. As I pointed out in I 1918. calculations'based on them need i to be heavily , ; discounted. \ Safer Estimates. •■ I have now tentatively recast my.estimates, reducing them, as I believe, to bedrook. ■ The results, unfortunately, i are by no means reassuring. . They aro j embodied in the following table:— 1 Coal, in Workable Seams. !'■ . Proved i and highly 1 Class of probable Probable ) i coal. (tons). (tons). Possible. } ■'. • cite ... Very little ; Very little Small ! Bitumini ous '... 187,000,000 ■ 477,000,000 Moderate j Semi-bi- . • ! ; I tumin- • ous ... 68,000,000 1M,000,00Q ModeYato ' . Brown ...194,000,000 728,000,000 Large.. Lignite ... 161,000,000..- 420,000,000 Large . ' Totals ; 610,000,000' 1,821,000,000 Large ;■ ': ■ . ■ How Long?

i The present yearly production of coal : in New Zealand is about 2,000,000 tons, i • but 'tad ■ it not been for the war' it '■ • would probably havo reached 2,500,000 i tons, in 1918. If we assume that .henceI-- forward the production will increase at ! the rate of 5 per cent' per annum (thus ' doubling itself every fourteen, years or ''■ thereabouts).'until'half the proved coal K is exhausted; and will tfc,en decrease in i the same ratio until/all the coal 13 j worked; the date of exhaustion may be ! mathematically calculated.. If no coal is ! lost in mining, then on the assumptions ; ihade half the proved coal will be mined i .in'Mi years, and all in 89 years. If ! all probable coal actually exists, and i can be mined, half the-coal supply will ')' last a" little over 77 years, but all will ! be-exhausted in 155 years. . These fig- '•■ ures show that the known coal supply i of New Zealand isMnadequate for future i Renerations. In reality the situation is I even worse than might be supposed from '; the data already set-out. More than I half the 'ooal in the ground cannot ■be i mined under present conditions. Theie '■ is some unavoidable loss in mining coal 1 even under the best conditions.: Most ! New Zealand'coals are prone to spontanI eoue combustion, and the los 3, direct and '■ indirect, caused by fire is very great ; Where the eeams are thick, the percenti age of loss in mining is considerable. _In : the brown coal and lignite districts i from 2ft.> to 4ft. of coal usually has to be i left to form a secure Toof. The slack i from brown coal and lignite mines cannot i be eold at a price sufficient to cover ! the cost of mining, and even friable j bituminous coal could not be mined at f a' profit prior to the war. Where coal ' has to be extracted from moderate depths : under -water, and where a water-logged : .etratum overlies the coal, pillars cani- not be extracted. The coal seams in i many localities are sharply or irregularly I folded, crushed, and faulted. Thin coal seams, especially those that contain stone- : bands; are not at present workable. For these various reasons barely one-thiTd i of-the higher grade coals and less than J • one-third of the.'lower" grade can be ' regarded as certainly retractable, lne L following figures therefore represent 'mineable coal:— : ./■,;■'" Tons. I 'Bituminous and semi-bitu- ' '. -minoue >. ■••• oij.Uw.uuu ; Brown coal and lignite 100.000,000 ! Total «000 ; On the eame assumption as before, thie i quantity of' coal will supply the full i needs of the Dominion for less than 2a i years, and will be .exhausted m less ; than 50 years. ; ' Another Factor. : As a matter of fact our coal mines will ; not bo exhausted in half a century., bei cause the increasing- price ot coal win enable improved methods of extraction i to be used, and at least GO per cent, ot , the coal will be won. Moreover, lam i confident that ultimately a much, larger ' amount of coal than the 1,821,000,000 tons i <it present classed as probable coal will ! ' be found to"'exist. •'Nevertheless, it « a fact that the coal in sight is barely ! sufficient 'for the needs of tho present i generation, ami therefore, a vigorous prosi pecting policy is necessary if we are to i build up industry, in tins country. The ' chief method of prospecting required is : detailed geological survey followed by ; extensive borinjr. Who is to do this. !■ work? Clearly it must be ; done by the , Government. The cost would suitably be i met bv a levy on coal produeed-ono i nenny per ton would probably be ample. ! WherVcoal is proved, 'the cost of prosi pectin" ousht to be refunded by the own?"of the coal, but, in he ease of i private lands, many difficulties would : arise Much unproved coal is buried in ! such land, end it mi ß ht well be argued that the coal is the property of the na- ! tion The undesirability of systcmat.c----i ally'prospecting privately owned and at ; the public exo.ense, and especially the ■£hsss < s=-*aS' ! TherT is however, apart from Socinlist ideals a very substantial and practical i r≥ for Slate nationalisation of coal mta The root of this reason lies in ! S" Act that our coal resources are I SMI ! ner suitable restrictions, is a question ; that I leave open.

Coal Royalties. In my opinion legislation is necessary to prevent those persons who are fortunate enough to own coal-boajw land from exacting exorbitant royalties. In Great Britain, where all coal land is L low c= 3d. per ton.' In Derbyshire the average coal royalty is •«. per ton. Electricity Will Not Replace Coal. To Mr Luke: The opinion of mining engineers and geologists would differ as to^tlie-amount of coal. The geologist vmiM ?av what coal actually exists, vkm flic frbujd'eay vMt araftint of cbiifcould be mined. Tho great difficulty about the coal deposits in Xeiv Zealand was that the coal was not continuous, but in patches, whereas in England the coal deposits were continuous. He agreed with Mr. Luke's proposi. tion that 'it would be good policy for

the Government to save coal by developing hydro-electric resources, with which the country was well supplied. To Mr. Horusby: Ho was euro that the uso of electrical energy would not harm the coal industry. There would always be plenty of ealo for all the coal wo could produce. The saving of coal would be large by the increased uso of water-power-produced electricity, but fhern would Dβ no money saving. On the contr.iry, tho money cost would probably lid greater. The brown coal resources in the iVfokau district had been surveyed geologically, but the report was not avauabld. Some areas had not been geologically surveyed jet. In any case we had not the chemists in New Zealand to ilea! with the brown coal, and the reason was that ohemieta were not offered adequate rewards. To Dr. Newman: The Department had not surveyed the ceral on the StratfordOngarue branoh line. It was believed that the outcrops wore of thin seams, not more than «t. thick. Nor was anything definite known about outcrops in The Retaruke and Mowhanga districts. It was possible that these outcrops wero from r>ig deposits, mid for this reason lie advocated detailed geological, surveys and boring. Shortage of Miners. • 'To Mr. Vcitch: Thore was a shortage of miners before the war. Coall-iiunnig was not a popular occupation. One of the Teasons was the poor accommodation at mines'for workers, tho reasons being that ■ companies either had not enough money or did not ca.ro to spend money on.'a venture which by its nature was temporary. Tho recruiting of miners would depend on 'wastes always, and 11 the wages were high enough men would go into the mines. In New Zealand the consumption of-coal was two tons per head of population. In Britain it was sis. tons per head, and in. the Eastern United States it must bo more. If A'ew Zealand were in the eame state of industrial development as England our consumption would be higher. State Ownership. To Mr. Sidey: He had given much thought -to the subject, nnd he believed that the only solution of our coal supply problem would bo by State ownership of all coal. Most of the coal was [proved, and it would 'not ba taking anything- from the owners of tho surface if the State took tho coal. , The State would pay compensation for proved coal. Before the war coal-mining was not profitable. Never more than n shilling a ton profit was made, and some mines worked at a. less. Nearly four-fifths of the country had not yet been geologically surveyed, though practically the whole country had 'been run over by a geologist. Hβ believed the State could have, m 1914, -acquired all the coal in the country'for three millions, hut that estimate was little more than a guess. It the State acquired all mines, it should own also its. steamers to carry coal. To Mr Wilkinson: It would be, he thought, fair to levy en such a company as the Westport Coal Company for prospecting for more coal, because the Westport Coal Company's property was prospected, by the Government in 1873 by officers of the Geological ■Survey. The total of proved coal in the Keetton district was under five million tons, but there was probably a. large field under the InaiigaW Valley. The , .estimates of probable coal in tho district varied from 50 to 100 million tons, To be certain about the amount of coal, the bovernment would have to do .extensive boring operations. ' . To Mr. Hndeon: He could not advise the Government to take over the Puponga mine, now dosed down, because little coal could he v;on without opening a new mine. He understood also that the mine was flooded. The shortage of coal at present was due to'lack of miners, and not to lack of coal in sight. What he would advise would be, a complete survey of the Collingwood district To Mr. Wilkinson: It would be better for the present to concentrate on opened mines than to open new mines. In the future, whon labour might be available,- it 'would perhaps be better tor save transport,by opening mines in districts far from present mines.