NEW ZEALAND COAL FOR GAS-MAKING

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 207, 29 May 1936, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND COAL FOR GAS-MAKING

More Extensive Use Urged FAIR RESPONSE TO APPEAL BY MINISTER The opinion that gasworks in New Zealand could use a considerably greater quantity of New Zealand coal than at present was expressed by the Minister of Alines, Hon. P. C. Webb, in an interview last night. “While there has been a very considerable increase in the amount of New Zealand coal used in the gasworks,” said the Minister. “I am positively convinced that a still greater amount can be utilised, and it behoves the companies to realise the importance of making the fullest possible use of our own coal. If the primary producers I and manufacturers of this country were subjected to the free entry of foreign produce and manufactured goods it would have a most serious effect on our industries, and I think the least that the coal mining industry can expect is that its product should be used to the fullest possible extent.” There was no excuse, Mr. Webb continued, for any horizontal retort gasworks to use one ton of Australian coal, and while vertical retorts were constructed for the consumption of coal of a more or less non-swelling character, these could undoubtedly consume more New Zealand coal than they were using or proposed to use. The response made by the gasworks proprietors to his appeal to make use of a greater quantity of New Zealand coal would have a determining influence on any legislation he might recommend to the Government in the future concerning imported coal.