ESTABLISHED 1886. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, AUGUST, 1912. COAL AND IRON SUPPLIES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 196, 19 August 1912, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1886. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. MONDAY, AUGUST, 1912. COAL AND IRON SUPPLIES.

A pleasant change from the usual purely political and partisan speeches which too often form the staple features of a Financial Debate was the long and thoughtful deliverance last week of Mr G. M.. Thomson, the Member for Dunedin North. Mr Thomson, who is a highly educated gentleman, has for some years devoted special attention to applied science, especially in connection with undertakings for which minerals are needed,' and what he has to say upon the. prospects of the New; Zealand coal and iron mining industries is well worthy.of attention. Mr Thomson has evidently made aiclose study, of the Dominion's position with regard to. its coal supply, and upon: this, he gave the House some very interesting information. His main object appears to have been to warn the Government and the people of New Zealand that the utmost care should be taken in dealing with the coal reserves of the country, especially in view of certain proposals which have been made as1 to the development of our iron deposits. Quoting some interesting figures prepared by Professor Park, of. Dunedin, as to the probable extent of New Zealand's coal supply, Mr Thomson stated that the Professor estimated that our coal would' be exhausted in 138 years. The inevitable, he said, must come, and 'the time had) now arrived when our ■ coal. deposits should be worked with scientific skill; and economy. Of the total estimated'supply of coal, Mr P. Morgan, Director of Geological Surveys, had said that probably one-half was not workable under our present economic conditions, and those to be expected in near future. The fields now being worked, contained the best and most, cheaply-worked deposits. Future generations would have to oe content with inferior coal, won at greater expense, The annual production of cbaPlfad increased rapidly until in 19l0:l#was 3,1,718,000 tons.. Of this, only about half could be saved, and according to the present rate of cpnsuniptipn our. ■coal would run out in 50 years. There were possibilities, of course, in connection with coal-mining, but we were wasting our patrimony in nfany directions,, and this waste'of coalj was one of them. The production of coal was more than doubling itself every ten years,' and the productioij' of bituminous coal was inoreasins: more rapidly than that of the non-bituminous, and the whole of the bituminous coal would be exhausted'; in less than. 50 years. The time Was probably coming, however, when people would cease to mine coal, at any rate for: consumption in the country where; it was produced, and to carry it to other places.to be used.. It was within the limits of probability that in a few years methods would be devised by which coal would be utilised at the place of production, and the power, developed from it would be transmitted.- . .This would do away with an enormous waste1 of coal.

From his exposition of the position as regards (our coal deposits Mr Thomson turned to a consideration of the proposals oft the English syndicate (represented 'by' Mr Witheford, exM.H.R;,for Auckland) to develop the Parapara iron deposits. Mr Thomson saiu that he had been asked to further the scheme proposed by Mr "Witheford for.the importation of a plant costing £650.000 to develop iron resources. But if the country were to pay 5 per ceht.; on £650,000 for 40 years, it seemed' to him that it was an uncommonly good proposal for the man seeking to bring money into the country, especially as the Government Was to take over the works at the end of 40 years. Mr Thomson considers that there is practically no chance of New. Zealand's producing iron for export. To do so successfully we should have to compete with the products of the enormous ironfields in India-.and China, where labor is obtainable at a rate absolutely impossible in a country such as ours. He therefore urged upon the Government the necessity for proceeding very cautiously with reference to any scheme of bonuses for the production of iron. Mr Laurenson, who followed Mr. ! Thomson, drew an attractive picturej of New^ Zealand becoming, by the aid i of her iron industry, the great manufacturing country of the Pacific; but the Member for Lyttelton is apt, we are afraid, not to trouble himself much about figures, and although it is possible that Mr Thomson may have exaggerated the obstacles in the way to a profitable development of the iron deposits at Parapara and Taranaki, W© are inclined to consider a better informed and! wiser counsellor of Parlia-r ment upon this: important question. Mr Laurenson - was on more solid ground when, he' urged with his customary strehuousness the increase of closer settlement and the provision of greater facilities for our young New Zealanders to get on the land and profitably.occupy and1 cultivate it. Returning to Mr Thomson's speech, We notice he made out what was seemingjy ft strong case for a careful examination of the conditions under which the State coal mines are being worked!. __ Mr Thomson's chief argument against the present system is that the profit and loss accounts of the mines are not subjected to charges which the ordinary mining companies have to # meet. The Government makes qirite a number of concessions to its own mines, whereas Mr Thomson contends that any industry carried on by the State -ought' to be ,

financed just as if it were carried on by a private company, and it ought to show on the debit side of its accounts the same charges that a private individual or a company has to pay. Otherwise the accounts of a State enterprise are not, he argues, correct. The State charges itself nothing for royalty on the output from the mines, whereas private companies pay a State royalty of sixpence a ton. State coal pays no wharfage, as against the ordinary wharfage rate of Is a ton paid on "company" coal. If the royalty and wharfage charges were taken into account, Mr Thomson declared, it would be found that the State coal mines had been worked for the past five years at a total loss of over £28,000. Further, he stated that the Railway Department had paid something like Is a ton more than it. ought to have done for State coal, and that consequently one department lost what another gained, and there was really no benefit to the State at all. It must be admitted, however, that at Wellington and Christchurch the price of coal has been reduced something like 2s 6d a ton by reason of the State's engaging in the industry; but apparently at Dunedin there has been no such saving. We have not space to refer to Mr Thomson's contention that the Seddonville mine is worked out, and that a vast amount of money will have.to be spent on what is known j as development work, and it seems to be doubtful whether the probable results would justify the expenditure of so large a sum, £100,000, as has been named. We are not prepared to say that some of Mr Thomson's statements may not, upon examination by experts, be found to be somewhat t pessimistic; but he seems _to have s made out a very strong prima facie ■ case for a careful examination of the ) whole position of the^ State, coal mbb dustry before the House authorises - any new and substantially large ex- , penditure in this direction.