PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume X, Issue 1941, 29 May 1888, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

(from our own correspondent.)

When Mr. Marchant asked tbe Minister for Public Works, on Friday, whether he would order a trial of firewood to be made in the locomotives on the New Plymouthline, Mr. Marchant pointed out that he had asked the question last session, and that the Minister had then replied that he had been informed that coal was more economical than wood. Mr. Marchant submitted, however, that the recent annual report of the Manawatu Company quite disposed of that contention ; and that as to the other point which had b9en urged against the use of firewood, viz., that it was unsuitable except on level lines, the Manawatu Company had found its use so beneficial on the level line from Lougbur* to Paikakariki that they were now about to extend it to the length between Paikakariki anl Wellington, the gradients on which are very heavy. In reply, Mr. Mitchelson admitted all Mr. Marchant had stated, but said that Government had no locomotives in this island suitable for the purpose, though in the South Island they had some ; that the cost of converting the present locomotives would be heavier than he was disposed to sanction ; and that the consumption of firewood would mean lessened employment to men on the coalfields of the West Coast of the South Island, and diminished traffic on the coalfields' railways. The reply waß considered very weak both by me and by everyone else to whom I have spoken who was present. The Manawatu Company saved £'600 last year by the use of wood.