N.Z. STATE MINES PROFIT LAST YEAR OVER £30,000

Grey River Argus, 7 October 1949, Page 3

N.Z. STATE MINES PROFIT LAST YEAR OVER £30,000

P.A. WELLINGTON'. Oct, 6 A net profit of £30,661 for the financial year 1948-49 was shown by the State Coal Mines, according to the annual report, presented to Parliament to-day. The report stated that last year open-cast mining was responsible for 25 per cent, of thd otal coal production. The net output of coal last financial year was 1,383,678 tons, as compared with 1,185,084 in 1947-48. The compensatable accidents at the State mines totalled 1406 for the year. COAL OUTPUT INCREASES t — , The coal production for 1948 was 2,775,886 tons, as compared with 2,751,725 tons in 1947, according to th e figures in the Mines Statement, presented to Parliament to-day. The highest total over the period 1930-48 was 2,833,576 in 1945, and the past year’s figure was the - best over that period except for the four years 1943-46.

The report records that, while production has been practically even at about 2,800,000 tons since 1943, and that for 1948 was 24,161 over that for 1947, it was disappointing that the increase was not greater .seeing that for the first six months of 1948 the output was 100,000 tons up on the corresponding period of 1947. OUTPUT LESS PER MAN

The output per underground miner was 546 tons in 1948, a decrease of IS tons on 1947, and the production per man in the open-cast mines was 1487 tons ja decrease of five tons. Theoverall production per man employed —underground and open-cast—-was 497® tons, or nine tons less than 1947.