ARAPUNI V. HUNTLY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17872, 29 August 1921, Page 8

ARAPUNI V. HUNTLY.

Sir, —Being interested in your Friday's leader on the above question, I would like the opportunity of stating that the people are apt to be carried away by what das transpired during the past few years in connection with the coalmining industry, and to launch the country into the expenditure of millions on which interest must be paid by an already much over-taxed community. Everyone is aware that very difficult conditions prevailed at the mines during the war period; but look tha situation squarely in the face and consider if such is ever likely to again occur. Was there any shortage of coal prior to the war, and is there now ? No. At the present time the Waikato collieries are dumping slack coal in large quantities. This grade comprises nearly 40 per cent, of the output and is chiefly used by the electrical generating stations in Auckland, to that if the market is reduced still further, it will be necessary for the collieries to raise the price of domestic coal to cover the cost of the waste. It is largely owing to the increased percentage of this grade of coal, caused by altered mining conditions, that the price of coal nas Been so high, and to reduce the consumption of it must increase the cost of higher grades. It is a question yet undecided if hydro-electricity will be cheaper than steam-generated at Huntly. What the community might save on the one hand would be lost in increased cost of domestic coal, the result being not a saving of «oal resources bnt an absolute waste of a useful product which has to be produced to obtain the necessary supplies of domestic fuel, in the same way that sawdust must be produced! to get building material. Touching on the danger of steam-generat-ing plants being liable to industrial interruption, this can be guarded against by the conservation of the Waikato coal in concrete reservoirs and covered with water; in which state it may be kept indefinitely with safety. Considering everything; if the Arapuni scheme is carried out it means taxation on the millions spent in the development, probably without any saving in the cost of electric current to the people, so that instead of paying a little more for Arapuni it might be better to pay a little more for power generated at Huntly. Edward S. Wight, Managing Director. Pukemiro Collieries, Ltd.