RAILWAY COAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 256, 27 September 1945, Page 6

RAILWAY COAL

MANAGER SUPPORTED. (Press Assn) WELLINGTON, Sept. 27 Mr T., H. Stephenson (general secretary of the Engine-drivers', hiremen’s and Cleaners' Association), in a statement endorsing the remarks of Mr Sawers (General Manager of Railways) regarding the coal situation and criticising the reply of the ActingMinister of Mines (Mr O’Brien), said it was refreshing to find someone in authority who could state the actual facts, even though they were unpalatable to the Acting-Minister of Mines. The facts were that the railways were in the gravest position they had ever been in their history and the General Manager had done a service by drawing attention to it. Far from improving, the position had steadily deteriorated and, judged by present-day supplies, when the mines closed down for the Christmas holidays the railways would come to a standstill within 48 hours.

Discussing the quality of open-cast coal, Mr Stephenson referred to the continued complaints of locomotive men about the large proportion of rock and mud. The Minister had quoted laboratory tests showing the calorific value of open-cast coal, but these tests were based on tests of selected coal. The decision of the railwaymen not to handle this coal was a more correct indication of its quality than any statement by a Minister or any laboratory analysis. The Railway Department is being robbed of thousands of pounds behaving to pay a coal price for spoil that is worthless, and on which the companies or Mines Department should, on a. balance, have been charged for the use of the wagons.’’, Mr Stephenson added. The statement said that six months ago the Price Tribunal asked the Standards Institute to prepare a standard specification for coal as the basis for price fixing, but nothing had been done beyond making contact with those concerned. “It will be noted that the Minister of Railways takes a more sober view and has never associated himself with the optimism of his colleagues, the Minister of Mines and the Acting-Min-ister of Mines.”