COAL FOR RAILWAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26117, 2 April 1946, Page 6

COAL FOR RAILWAYS

RESERVE STOCKS LOW PROBLEM OF EASTER TRAVEL (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Apl. 1. “ I don’t know what to do about the problem of faster travel. We took the risk of running extra trains at Christmas and just got through, but at the moment we don’t know what to do,” declared the Minister of Railways, Mr R. Semple, to-day, when commenting on statements recently made by the chairman of the Buller County Council, Mr J. Ward, as to the bituminous coal available on the West Coast. Mr Ward had taken exception to a statement by Mr Semple during an address to the municipal conference when he said that the known fields of bituminous coal on the West Coast would not last more than 15 or 20 years unless other deposits of which he knew nothing were found. Mr Semple explained that the difference between himself and Mr Ward was that he was talking about known fields of bituminous coal while Mr Ward was apparently assuming that there were millions of tons as yet unknown to anybody. Mr Semple said that the present coal stocks held by the Railways Department were 4400 tons in the North Island and 4300 tons in the South. The weekly consumption in the North Island was 8000 tons and in the South Island 4000 tons. It could, therefore, be seen that only four days’ supply was available in the North Island, and the department had been as low as only two days’ supply in hand. There was a little over a week’s supply in the South Island.

The domestic coal situation had been bad last winter, and there did not appear to be much prospect of an improvement in the coming winter.