COAL AND WATER-POWER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17635, 27 May 1919, Page 4

COAL AND WATER-POWER.

The Director of Geological Surrey furnished a strong argument in favour of the systematic development of the water-power resources of the dominion when he submitted to the Parliamentary Industries Committee last week a statement relative to the coal supplies of the dominion. This statement embodied an estimate of the amount of coal in the dominion that can be profitably mined. The estimate, although based on the results of geological survey, is admitted to be tentative only, because a great deal of the dominion has not beein subjected to an exhaustive survey, but it is what the Director, having regard to available data, describes as a " bed-rock" estimate and it may be accepted as reasonably reliable. It shows that what is classed as "probable coal" exists to the amount of 1,821,000,000 tons in New Zealand. The present yearly production is about 2,000,000 tons. It would probably have reached 2,500,000 tons if the war had not had the effect of curtailing the output. On the ..assumption that the production will increase at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum until half the proved coal is exhausted and will then decrease in the same ratio until all the 'coal is worked, and that no coal is lost in mining—this being, however, an untenable assumption, since there is an unavoidable loss even under the best conditions—the supplies will last for 155 years. But this is an optimistic conclusion. More than half the coal in the ground cannot be worked under present conditions, and the Director of Geological Survey calculates that barely one-third of the higher grade coals and less than one-third of the lower grade can be regarded as certainly extractable. The actually mineable coal is estimated by him at 85,000,000 tons of bituminous and semi-bituminous and 100,000,000 tons of brown coal and lignite. These supplies would, unless improved methods of extraction were employed, be exhausted in less than 50 years. Improved methods will be utilised, however, and the quantity of "probable coal" will be found to be greater than is at present estimated. The life of the mineable fields of the dominion will, therefore, be longer thnn has been calculated.' But the exhaustion of the mines must, at the present rate of production and consumption, be •looked for in what may, in th& life of a nation, be sapd to be the not very distant future. The prospect which is thus unfolded would be a very, gloomy one if the country were not possessed of other valuable resources admitting of the supply of light, heating, and power. So bountifully supplied, however, is New Zealand with hydro-electric resources that the exhaustion of the coal supplies, when this comes about, will hardly amount to a national disaster of the gravest character. The official estimate of the extent by which our coal supplies are being depleted should, nevertheless, furnish such stimulus as may be required to induce a prompt and comprehensive development of the water-power resources of the dominion. These resources may be said to be practically inexhaustible. They are distributed throughout both islands with impartial prodigality. They constitute an asset of tremendous value to the State. The development of them will be attended by none of the conditions that fnake the mining of coal an unattractive occupation. And the full utilisation of them will contribute in a marked degree to the realisation of the ideals of town-planning, with the importance of which the public mind is being impressed at the present time. A progressive policy directed to the "harnessing" of the rivers of the dominion should be a prominent feature of the programme of each of the political parties of the country.