TEN YEARS HENCE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16534, 29 December 1927, Page 8

TEN YEARS HENCE

‘ N.Z. 810 EXPORTER OF COAL. MR. .1. O'BRIEN'S BELIEF. At. the meeting of the Creymouth Borough Council the following letter, dated December 12, was read from the Minister for Railways: “With reference to your representation urging that, arrangements he made 1 o enable the coal mines to work during the Christmas holidays, I have to inform you the Railway Department is at present taking all the coal offering from the they Valley district, current orders' now totalling 2371 tons per week, of which over 2000 tons are obtained from the Dobson, Blackball, and Liverpool collieries. If additional quantities of coal suitable for locomotive purposes are available from these mines between now and Christmas, the Department can place further orders, hut it would appear that the main factor which concerns the coal companies is the disposal of small cpal, which is unsuitable for railway requirements. However, the Department s Comptroller of Stores will get into touch with the mineowners with the object of seeing what can bo arranged. Cr. R. ,7. Williams said the Government had promised to make experiments with a view to the development of the coal industry. He asked the DeputyMayor, Mr. J. O'Brien, whether lie could give the council any information with regard to what had been done. Mr. O’Brien said that anything that had been done in this connection 1 was still in the experimental stage, and so far no great- results had been achieved. The experiments with regard to pulverised coal, the manufacture of briquettes, and the extraction of by-products, the residue of which could be -utilised, had been very successful in other countries, such as Germany. The Sockburn ByBrod acts Co. was manufacturing smokeless fuel, which had proved successful on the railways, but he doubted whether tins venture could be developed on a laige enough scale to deal with New Zealand coal products. The main trouble a.t the present time was that high-draught rai - way locomotives blew the slack through the smoke-stacks without consuming iL He would not be surprised in another 10 vears’ time to • see New Zealand exporting coal to Australia instead of importing it, from that country. Ho based this opinion on his firm belief that there would be a steady increase in the demand for coal, and New Zealand had the capacity for coal production on very extensive lines. and almost unlimited resources awaiting development. The Minister’s letter was received.