COAL TRANSPORT PROBLEM: ROA MINE IS IDLED

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 July 1950, Page 4

COAL TRANSPORT PROBLEM: ROA MINE IS IDLED

The Roa State mine was idle today and the stocks of coal in other Grey district mine bins are approaching capacity because, as has happened fairly frequently over the past few months, the transport of coal away from the West Coast by rail and sea is not keeping pace with the combined outputs of the mines. The Roa mine stocks accumulated during the period that the Blackball bridge was closed and since the reopening of the railway line to Blackball and Roa it has not been possible to effect a clearance. This week, a further complication was introduced by the closing of the temporary bridge for two days and yesterday, with more than 2000 tons of coal held at Roa, there was no option but to declare a “holiday” at the mine today. Bins Full Today The bins at the Liverpool and Dobson mines will also be at capacity by the end of today’s shift and for some time the Wallsend and Strongman mines have had to depend.upon the day-to-day supply of railway wagons to keep working. In addition to the stocks of coal at the mines, there was between 1000 and 1500 tons of coal lying in hoppers on the Greymouth wharf this morning. Almost 1000 tons of this coal, including a big percentage of cooperative mine coal, has been under load on the wharf for upwards of a month, awaiting shipment to Wellington—its only market at present. The “tying-up” of hoppers with this coal has added to the difficulties of keeping the mines supplied with their day-to-day requirements of hoppers, as it is estimated that the district has been working on only about half its normal number of hoppers and this, in turn, has affected the running of coal for available shipping. A combination of circumstances, has caused the long delay in the shipment of coal consigned to Wellington, among which was the fact that the Kiwitea sprang a leak at Wellington, just prior to its departure for Greymouth to load coal and with the shortage of labour and other factors it took nearly a fortnight to transfer her cargo to the Kaimiro. The Kiwitea was eventually replaced by the Kaimiro, which is now loading coal at Greymouth. It will take the 1500 tons of coal which has been on the wharf for some time and also about another 1400 tons of State coal, for Wellington. The Puriri will also load about 1000 tons today and together these vessels will release about 200 hoppers for the mines to commence work with on Monday.

Next Week’s Prospects

For this reason, the situation for the early part of next week will probably be a good deal better than it has been for several days. In addition, it is expected that many of the miners will work a short day, or take time off on Monday, to attend the Rugby League fixture. At the moment, however, there is only one collier ih sight for Greymouth next week, the Kartigi, and it is likely that the coal stocks will cause difficulties again towards the end of the week. The fact that four colliers are held at Auckland, where a wharf dispute has developed, has not helped the position locally. Auckland is suffering from 1 a coal famine through the Waikato miners’ strike, but there is little prospect of any relief through supplies of Grey or Buller district coal reaching the northern city while the colliers which could be used are tied up at Auckland itself. For example, the Kaitawa was to have left Auckland today for Greymouth with cargo and to load coal for return, but it is now likely that her departure will be delayed through the wharf dispute. QUESTION RAISED WELLINGTON, This Day (P.A.). —A request for an investigation, _to see whether the two coal colliers recently withdrawn from the service between the West Coast ports and the North Island could remain, so as to ship large quantities of coal and thus ease the extreme shortage of coal at various gasworks, was made by Mr W. B. Tennent (Government, Palmerston North) to the Ministers of Mines (Mr Sullivan) and Marine (Mr Goosman) at question time in the House of Representatives this morning.