New Zealand’s Position

Northern Advocate, 8 September 1938, Page 4

New Zealand’s Position

[■Special To northern Advocate ”] AUCKLAND, This Day.

The opinion that should there be a general strike of coalminers in Australia, the trouble would not spread to New Zealand before the elections, was expressed by Colonel W. D. Holgate, former president of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association, and director of the Taupiri coal mines. He said the most serious effects in the Dominion would not be directly caused by the strike, but by the terms of settlement which followed it. He did not anticipate any shortage of coal, nor rise in price, due to the cessation of production in Australia. New Zealand imported very little coal now. There had been a steady decrease as local output increased. and gas companies turned more to the use of "Westport coal for gas-making purposes. The latest return showed that the import 'of gas coal from Newcastle in 1937 was 116,499 tons. Although this was an increase of 5000 tons on the previous year, there had been a steady decline from 1925, when New Zealand used 572,573 tons of Australian coal.

The tendency was for continued decline. the strike did not spread, it would have little or no effect on the Dominion. Assurances have been given, in response to inquiries by unions in New Zealand, that coal would not be exported to Australia,