COAL IN ANTARCTICA

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 January 1935, Page 9

COAL IN ANTARCTICA

COMMERCIAL VALUE DOUBTED FINDS PREVIOUSLY REPORTED GEOLOG IST 'S OPINIONS. -Most expeditions which have visited Antarctica have reported the presence of coalfields, but Professor It. Speight, one of the mo.-: prominent geologists in New Zealand, told a Christchurch reporter that lie did not think that there had been any indication that these fields were likely to be of commercial value. Professor Speight was referring to the statement in a cablegram from Little America that Rear-Admiral E. E. Byrd’s party had reported finding extensive deposits of coal and fossilised plants, leaves and sections of prehistoric tree trunks.

Reports oil coalfields in the Antarctic had been made by Scott’s first expedition (by Dr. 1L J . Ferrur), by Scott’s second expedition, and by Maw son's expedition in Adelie Land, said Professor Speight. Coaly substances and stems of trees had been so widely reported that evidently there was a widespread distribution of carbonaceous material.

“Bright coal does occur, but I do not know that fields of true commercial value have been found,” continued Professor Speight. “It is possible, of course, that the present expedition may have made a discovery of that nature.

“The fossil plants discovered in Antarctica connect up with the coal measures of New South Wales, where these plants are known to have occurred. Tn fact thev are part of the flora which extended all round the Southern Pole p u t not in New Zealand —in Pernio-