PRODUCTION OF COAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17780, 13 May 1921, Page 4

PRODUCTION OF COAL

In view of the importance to the community of the mining industry in the Waikato, the plans announced at the annual meeting of the Taupiri Coalmines, Ltd., for increasing the production of coal are of general interest. In addition to other development works the company is equipping one of its mines throughout with electrically-driven machinery. This is a practical answer to the criticism that has frequently been addressed to the owners of coalmines in New Zealand that they have neglected to employ modern mechanical methods in their operations. There is no doubt that the use of machinery, wherever possible, not only facilitates the extraction of coal, but also relieves the miners from a great deal of the most irksome labour; the remarkably high production from the American coalfields is indeed largely attributable to the extensive employment of mechanical appliances and of such adaptable motive power as electricity and compressed air, both for the cutting of the coal and its transport within the mines. The mechanical

equipment of the Rotowaro mine— which has from the first been developed on modern lines, including the housing and other provision for its employees—is probably an experiment. Such machinery is costly, and cannot pay for itself unless it is used economically and efficiently. With continuous operation, machinery will help to increase the output of coal and to maintain the wages of the miners ; if operations are periodically interrupted, the losses of the owner of a mechanically-equipped mine will be greater than those at a mine where manual labour only is used. Last year's production from the Taupiri properties was reduced by 10 per cent., chiefly through unnecessary stoppages. The result was not only injurious to the miners themselves and to all who depend upon the Waikato mines for coal; it also tended to discourage the company from doing its share in increasing the output by the introduction of the most efficient methods. If they are to continue their enterprising policy, the directors of the company are entitled to ask for guarantees that tie working of the mines will not be needlessly interrupted.