COAL MINING METHODS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17339, 10 December 1919, Page 11

COAL MINING METHODS.

AUSTRALIAN ADVANTAGES. ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT., g AUCKLANDER'S IMPRESSIONS ] An investigation of the coal industry ' and the methods of handling coal in New : South Wales, extending over six weeks, has been conducted by Mr. W. D. Hoi- ' gate, managing director of the Northern Coal Company, who returned to Auckland i from Sydney by the Maheno on Monday. i Mr. Holgate states that after visiting some 20 mines, he has come to the con- ; elusion that the industry should be, and no doubt is, much more profitable in New South Wales than in- New Zealand, the reason being that the coal seams are larger and more conveniently worked, requiring less timbering. • They also, he says, are practically free of breaks and faults, as compared with New Zealand seams, and in many places, for instance South Coast and Lithgow, easily accessible. Another feature in connection with the ■ cheap working is the small quantity of water met with as compared with the : New Zealand mines. \ The labour conditions, however, Mr. Holgate says, are very much on all fours ; with those in New Zealand, but the , manipulation and handling of the coal is very much ahead of the methods adopted in the Dominion. The greater portion of j ; the mines are electrically equipped. The electric plant in J. and A. Browne's mine at Maitland, with equipment, cost £550,000. Steam engines for other than generating electricity will soon be a , thing of the past in connection with the working of coal in ■ New South Wales. Mr. Holgate has purchased for the Northern Goal Company an electrical plant, which will be used at the company's new mine at Hikurangi.