STATE COAL MINE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 September 1926, Page 3

STATE COAL MINE.

(To the Editor). Sir,—A deputation representing the State Miners' Union recently waited on Mr Holland, M.P., with reference to the fiequent stoppage of work at the Liverpool Colliery. Everyone will agree that in the interest of the miners and the district generally it is desirable that the mines should, if possible, be working every day. and any suggestion that would lead to an improvement in that direction will, no doubt, receive the fullest consideration from the Minister of -Mines. Fortunately, the deputation were able to supply the cause of the trouble, and. as is usual with scientists, having found the cause had little difficulty in discovering a remedy. The chief cause of the trouble was a -shortage of shipping and an ac-

cumulation of slack coal in the bins. The remedies suggested by the deputation to deal with the Greymouth bar were not published, but the accumulation of slack coal was a difficulty that could be overcome by scrapping defective screening plant at present in use, and replacing it with an up-to-date plant. In other words, by more effective screening, a larger percentage of slack would be obtained and further add to the difficulty. This brilliant idea is surely worthy of more than ordinary recognition. The deputation had it on good authority that the Railway Department

would take more coal from the Liverpool Mine, if the coal was more effectively screened. This means a further increase in accumulation of slack and the Railway Department would, of course, take the remainder of the screened coal. The difficulty with most mines is, and has always been, the disposal of the slack coal, and I understand that the only complaint the Railway Department have ever made about Liverpool coal is that not sufficient slack was taken from it in

the process ot screening. The deputation requested that a more effiicent screen should be installed to prevent the accumulation of slack. A little knowledge is surely a dangerous thing, but even a little knowledge would be preferable to this. The writer has seen the screens in use at the most important mines in New Zealand, and also the latest from England, and can honestly say that the screening _plant now in use at the Liverpool Colliery compares more than favourably with any of them. A remedy, as suggested by a practical man from Blackball, would perhaps be more effective in reducing the percentage of slack and thereby increasing the supply of saleable coal, by scrapping the present obsolete method of cutting the coal, or not cutting it. Less explosives and more holing will result in less slack, more saleable coal, more regular work, and much less work for the screens to perform.—l am, etc., AT REWANUI.