COAL INDUSTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23505, 20 May 1938, Page 7

COAL INDUSTRY

COST OF PRODUCTION MECHANISATION OF MINES NEW ZEALAND’S DIFFICULTIES (Si-kciai. ro Daily ITmes) AUCKLAND, May 18. “No competent coal mining engineer who had any knowledge of New Zealand conditions could possibly say that coal could be produced in the Dominion at 5s a ton,” said Mr W D. Holgate, president of the Waikato Coal Mine Owners’ Association, with reference to a report that an American mining engineer. Mr G. Cargal, of Salt Lake City, had stated in Christchurch that the production cost of coal in New Zealand could be reduced to 5s a ton.

“It would not be possible to mechanise our mines to any extent because the formation of the seams is, so irregular,” said Mr Holgate. American mines were very different, because the geological structure of the coal-bearing country was so regular that the mines could be laid out for large-scale production. In addition, there was the huge market in the United States which could absorb large outputs. Any increase in production in the Dominion would meet with no demand from the relatively small number of consumers. Referring to the Mr Cargal’s statement that one man could produce only one and a-half to three tons a day at the pit, in comparison with 10 tons a man in a fully mechaniseed colliery, Mr Holgate said that men in the Waikato mines were averaging more than eight tons a day. New Zealand labour conditions were also different from those in America. Extensive mechanisation would not be tolerated by the miners in the Dominion, as was evident from the difficulty experienced in certain mines in getting men to use coal cutters. Even if machinery were used, the cost of freight, which amounted to 12s 6d a ton from the Waikato to Auckland, would make it quite impossible to bring the cost of coal to a figure approaching that quoted by Mr Cargal.