IMPORTED COAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15500, 6 January 1914, Page 8

IMPORTED COAL.

LOCAL ARTICLE SUPERIOR.

[V.Y TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Monday. O.vb result of the strike will be to establish in the miads of all coal users in *bia city a deep and lasting conviction of the immense superiority of New Zfa-Knd coal over all imported coals. Esp ~iafly do Uw.i.l users appreciate this fact. The N«v, 'tfih coal imported in the earlier h . cs of the trouble, is familiar to many coat burners in this country, both for bunker pur uses on ships and for steam and household uses on land. While generally satisfactory it is a dirty coal as compared with the West Coast fuel, and very smoky in boilers adapted for burning New Zealand coal. The City Council had a certain amount of trouble, on account of its smokiness, with their Newcastle coal, which, moreover, had to bo brok»i up fot iso in the furn&cej, but on the whole the Newcastle coal was satisfactory.

This cannot bo said of the coal recently pwured from South Africa, for it has given a great deal of trouble already. It js a,n exceedingly dirty coal, leaving what in calculated to be fully 15 per cent, of ash, as compared with the 2 or 3 per cent, with West port coal. Moreover, it clinkers badly and chokes the furnaces by blocking up the air inlets. So bad has it been that an extra boiler had to bo thrown into use to get the necessary steam at the electric light station. The experience at the tramway power-house was worse, as here tho African coal collected in a sort of fused clinker at tho far end of the furnace, and was removed with very great difficulty. The coal is full of a variety of shale which burns very badly, and of a substance which leaves a quantity of white ash. Altogether the feeliag abroad is an earnest desire to get back to tho West Coast coal