OUTPUT INCREASED

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 60, 8 September 1945, Page 8

OUTPUT INCREASED

COAL PRODUCTION

PA AUCKLAND, This Day. Coal production for the seven months ended July was 1,601,975 tons, of which 203,328 tons was won from open-cast mines, announced Mr. C. H. Benney, Mines Controller, in a statement today. This represented an increase of 58,059 tons on the corresponding period last year, he said. The output this year suffered owing to loss of work on victory days and during the railway strike in January, but steadily increasing returns from mechanical open-cast pits had enabled the general position to be maintained. Mr. Benney said that as a result of a recent visit to the United States by Mr. A. F. Downer, who had been closely associated with the Mines Department in open-cast developments, modern equipment had been ordered for State ventures at Lake Kimihia and Stockton. Within a week or so two large shovels, costing £30,000 each, would be landed for the Mines Department. "The Department is confident that the forward coal supply position will improve steadily to enable an extended railway service over the Christmas holiday period," he said. He added that the Department was doing its utmost to supplement the local output with imports from Australia, but the situation was worse there than here.