COAL SHORTAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24145, 11 December 1941, Page 8

COAL SHORTAGE

FEWER RAILWAY TRUCKS

ALL TYPES AFFECTED

MINERS' HOLIDAYS PENDING (0,C.) HUNTLY, Wednesday Shortages of practically all varieties of coal are now becoming apparent. The chief difficulty being experienced by the mines at Huntly is tho shortage of railway trucks, and work has had to bo stopped on at least two occasions during tho past two weeks for this reason. There was one hold-up last week and another on Monday. Many industries, both in the Waikato and in Auckland, are complaining that sufficient supplies of slack coal are not available. l)airy companies are among those affected. Slack coal, which is used for commercial plants, is not tho only type which is in short supply, almost every grade being affected. The 40-Hour Week Kitchen, or steam, coal also is difficult to obtain. Thi3 is largely used by the railways, but the present demand has been accentuated by tho small supplies coming from tho South Island, which were normally used to supplement railway stocks. It has been reported that kitchen coal has even been used in large industrial furnaces to overcome the lack of slack coal. It was stated that the shortage of railway trucks had been noticeable for some time, but the position had become more acute in recent weeks. Another factor was that country carriers were working on a 40-hour week and any trucks which arrived at country stations late on Friday were not handled until Monday. Christmas Holidays

This entailed a further stoppage, and it was estimated that this fact alone resulted in the use of over 12£ per cent of the available trucks being lost each week. Only very few of the country carriers worked over the week-end, and consequently one day in each week was lost. It was pointed out that the shortage of trucks was serious enough before thiSj but the resultant delay only accentuated the difficulty. The Huntly mines will close for the Christmas holidays on December 19. The miners have been requested to work on December 22 and 23, but they have refused on the grounds that even if the request was granted there would not be enough railway trucks to deal with the coal produced.

"TEMPORARY DIFFICULTY" HEAVY RAILWAY DEMAND "The Railway Department always has done its best for the mines," said Mr. G. S. Reid, district traffic manager in Auckland, yesterday. Mr. Reid admitted that the department had experienced a temporary difficulty in meeting the demand, but he contended that the mines had only topped for a few hours once last week and also only once this week.

Mr. Reid added that there had been an extremely keen demand for trucks in the ordinary rush before Christmas. Coupled with this was a heavy timber traffic, while the late season had resulted in a rush of wool into store. Mr. Reid contended that the supply compared favourably with that in previous years.