NO STEAM PLANT FOR POWER GENERATION WILL BE ORDERED

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 October 1948, Page 3

NO STEAM PLANT FOR POWER GENERATION WILL BE ORDERED

WELLINGTON, October 15.

“No we haven’t ordered any steam plant and we are not going to —not when we are having to pay £lO a ton for coal,” said the Minister of Works (Mr R. .Semple) answering criticism of the hydro-electric policy in the House of Representatives today. “What wise guys these fellows are,” said Mr Semple, referring to those who asked for the purchase of steam plant. “We cannot get enough coal from Huntly to run the King’s Wharf power station.”

A member: Why? Mr Semple said that the output a man in the mines was higher now than it had ever been. Mr J. K. McAlpine (Opposition, Selwyn): But you cannot transport it. Mr Semple said that the reason for the lack of coal was a shortage of miners and that was because miners’ sons were “not following daddy down the mine.” The department was concentrating on big power schemes and not little “comic opera” ones. He said the power boards’ conference at Dunedin had endorsed the Government’s plans unanimously. Mr W. H. Fortune (Opposition, Eden) said an additional ■ plant of 13,000-kilowatt capacity was available last year for installation in Auckland and should have been procured. Oil was apparently available for augmented train services and if that was so it should also be available for power stations. Mr Semple said oil supplies had been cut by two-thirds in the last three weeks.