THE NATIVE FUELS OF NEW ZEALAND.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 314, 26 April 1877, Page 4

THE NATIVE FUELS OF NEW ZEALAND.

fFwrnthn Dwiaiito "Star.") Every year the subject of a supply of jfc«l the use of the inhabitants of Che Colony will become of more importance. Tbe d cvclopment of manufacturing in. Poetries and the growth of our steam demand an ever-increasing supply of coal of suitable quality, or some efficient substitute for it, even did the yield of firewood from the forest# of the country show n» signs of failing: off i but our forests are gradndSy vanishing, an d as their borders recede further and further from the centres of human population, so it becomes more costly to derive from this source fuel for household consumption. TS» General Assembly has, on two or three occasions, directed its attention to matter, and last session a select committee was appointed to investigate it in Its bearings upon the working of the Colonial railways. The committee entered into the inquiry with vigour, and in due aeoaon brought up a report, brief, but to the point,, which was forthwith published; btrt it was not until a week or two ago the Government Printing Department issued, in the usual form of a Parliamentary paper, the evidence and other data upon which the report was based, although it really did not contain anything unfit to bear the light to warrant th* delay. On the contrary, it is a valuable document which might be read with pleasure and profit by everybody who takes an interest in the progress of local industries. , The committee did not spend much time in discussing the utility of the Grey and Buller coals for steam purposes, partly for the reason, it may be presumed, that they were alrtady suttkiuutly wett known *, and. moreover, it had been specially directed by the Housw t<> inquire into the e*p« di<mcy of using brown e»>«I on the rai tvv.'kyrf. There lia<» always been a prejudice against the brow n coals *>t the Colony. Th ey are unquestionably inferior to the Newcastle ami Grey coats for steam purposes, and as the Newcastle coal «>rts always, and the Grey coal lately, been obtainable to any extent desired, those persons engaged in the use of machinery have felt little disposed to take the trouble to alter furnaces and learn new methods of stoking for the sake of giving the brown coal a fair trial. Moreover, the awkward bulk of brown coal tells against its use, especially on steamers, where every extra yard of space occupied by coal bunkers is a yard the less available for cargo. Consequently brown coal has been treated as if it were merely a jri* attar, and the important part which it plays in Continental manufactures has been overlooked. It is pointed out by Dr. Vojt Haast that brown coals of no better quality than, or perhaps even inferior to, those of the Malvern Hills in Canterbury are nsed in the large establishments of llaiserin Elizabeth Westbalm ; that all the large iron-works in the Valley of the Mttra us© extensively the brown coal of Langenwang, Wart berg, Purschlac, and I*ruek ; that many German railways " use brown coat of not superior quality to that of the principal localities in both Islands of New Zealand, and in several of the Crown lands of Austria all th<s great industries depend entirely upon it." Of course, if a locomotive uses brown coal instead of the purer kind, its furnaces have to bet arranged accordingly, but these alterations seemi to be both easily and cheaply made. The committee naturally drifted upon '* patent fuel, ,r and although the idea is one which the mind is apt to regret at ttrst as impracticable, yet the information which the committee collected brings it down pretty near to the region of feasibility. What is termed patent fuel is simply coal dust, bound together by pitch, tar, or some 1 patent tluid, the composition being subjected to a pressure of about 50 tons weight, and so reduced into the shape of moderate-sized blocks convenient for stowage. These blocks, by the pressure to which they are subjected, acquire a glazed surface, and can be handled without soiling the fingers. The advantages which this artificial fuel possesses over the natural coal are that it occupies less room, 130 tons of compressed coal stowing in the space required for tons of ordinary coal; there is less waste from friction ; and the artificial coal does not sutler so much from exposure to the air. On the Continent it is getting into extensive use ; indeed, it is scarcely used at all in England, although, out of a total annual manufacture of 6X2,060 tons, it is computed that 392,000 tons are made there. The principal cause of this difference in consumption is the abundance of - good and cheap coal in England, so that the want of patent fuel is less felt than on the Continent, where brown coal is applied to purposes for which the finer qualities are reserved in England ; and it is just in the case of brown coal, friable and bulky, that the superiority of patent fuel is manifest. It is only recently, too, that really suitable machinery for making this fuel has: been invested; bub there is every prospect of a vastly increased demand soon arising,, the matter having attracted notice in America arid India. The British Admiralty, which has hitherto looked at patent fuel askance, is now regarding it with favourable eyes; and the ships recently sent on the Arctic expedition took no other fuel on board for their engines. The French Marine reports on it in the most flattering tortus. The value of compressed coat is, indeed, most strikingly apparent in steam navigation, and we should think the owners of the smallest of the steamers which ply on the New Zealand coast would hail patent fuel as a godsend if it could be supplied to them at a seasonable price. Unfortunately that important point lias not been proved. Usually

these questions turn upon the difference between the cost of labour here and at,, Home; but, in the present case, it is otherwise. The outlay for labor could only be trifling, because the entire work is done at one operation by the machine, the whole cost of labour and superintendence from track to truck being estimated at not more than 6d. per ton in England. The really expensive item is the binding material, and unless the pitch or tar required could be purchased at a much lower figure than its current market rate, the manufacture of patent fuel would not pay in New Zealand. The whole thing revolves upon this pivot, and it will, therefore, be seen that the project of establishing manufactures of patent fuel is t»y no means a one, although it may require time for its realisation. All the experts whose opinions have been taken agree in stating that the Otago brown coals are admirably adapted for this purpose.