CONSERVING COAL SLACK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22709, 23 October 1935, Page 7

CONSERVING COAL SLACK

HYDROGENATION PROCESS POTENTIAL NATURAL ASSET (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, October 22. The suggestion that the Government should encourage the hydrogenation of coal in New Zealand was made by several members when the Coal Mines Amendment Bill was under consideration in the House of Representatives to-day. The Bill, which is designed to conserve coal slack for possible future use by the State, was put through its remaining stages and passed. Mr P. C. Webb 'said that 5,000,000 gallons of fuel oil were wasted in New Zealand every year through the • waste of coal slack. The cost of extracting the fuel oil was between 8d and 9d a gallon, but New Zealand companies were forced to pay excise duty on the petrol produced. In England the industry was subsidised. Mr Veitch said he considered that the coal dealt with by the Bill should be treated at once, and that a potential national assset should be converted into a. real asset. The necessary finance could be arranged without difficulty. The Minister said that a process of hydrogenation was in the course of development, and that the Government did not. wish to establish a plant only to find in a few years' time that it would be a white elephant. Coal for hydrogenation purposes could be handled only in a very large way. Even in Australia it was considered too expensive for private enterprise.