WESTPORT-STOCKTON MINE

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 June 1944, Page 4

WESTPORT-STOCKTON MINE

PURCHASED BY STATE

WELLINGTON, June 24

The Minister of Mines (Mr. Webb) announced to-day that the Government has decided to acquire the mine of the Westport-Stockton Coal Company, near Westport, and that in future the colliery will be operated as a State mine. The Minister said that underground mining operations which the company had been carrying on for over a year, with financial assistance, from the State, -would be continued, and preliminary work in connection with open-cast mining would be pushed on with the- utmost speed, so as to ensure the maximum output and relieve the general coal position, especially in regard to railway supplies. the Minister pointed out that there were only limited reserves of b;iuminous coal in the Dominion, and the need was felt for the utmost conservation of these valuable resources. This was brought home forcibly by the difficulty experienced by gasworks and the railways in the cast year. “We are confident,” concluded the Minister, “that the output from Stockton can be increased substantially within one month and as the coal isNuitable for railways-and steaming pu/noses it will release other coal for the gasworks. This is at present supplied from railway stocks.”