DEMAND FOR COAL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 16 June 1930, Page 2

DEMAND FOR COAL

EFFECT OF ARAPUNI CLOSING (By Telegraph—Special to "The Mail") AUCKLAND, This Day. A demand for steam coal is the good that has emerged from the ill-wind that has overtaken the Arapuni hydroelectric scheme. The coal industry throughout New Zealand has been affected by the development of hydroelectric power and the use of oil fuel and the generation of power at Arapuni has lessened the demand on the Wnikato collieries to the extent of thousands of tons a year. Not only did they lose the chief market for their output of slack, but the supply of electric power throughout the province restricted other avenues of disposal. The cessation of the King's Wharf station closed a market for at least 80,000 tons of slack a year, which was left on the hands of the coalmining companies. As over 40 per cent, of the output of the lignite mines in the Waikato is slack, representing about 150,000 tons, the loss of this market created a serious position and led the companies affected to unite in the establishment of a carbonisation plant to produce briquettes from the unsaleable slack. Temporarily, however, the market for the bulk of this slack has been restored by the necessity for the closing of Arapuni for repairs. At present the King s Wharf power station is consuming 3000 tons of slack a week.