SUPPLIES OF COAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17916, 21 October 1932, Page 11

SUPPLIES OF COAL

NEW ZEALAND'S DEPOSITS GEOLOGIST’S WARNING “I cannot emphasise too strongly that it is our bounden duty not to consume needlessly our valuable and all-too-scanty deposits of coal,” said Dr. J. Henderson, of the Department of Geological Survey in an address to the Wellington Philosophical Society. ‘‘The .proper use of coal is as a raw material of only the residue should be used as-a source of heat.” Dr. Henderson said a serious objection to the use of coal in the production of (electricity was that New Zealand’s supplies were decidedly small. They had been estimated to Ire sufficient for aiout 100 years if the consumption expanded at a certain moderate rate as population grew. That was a very short period in the history of a nation. The native timber supplies of the North Island were nearly exhausted, but when the first {settlors arrived in Wellington 90 years or so ago almost the whole of the island was clothed in dense forest. The idea of a timber scarcity would have appeared almost grotesque. At the present tune tlie idea of exhausting the existing coal deposits appeared equally so■ nevertheless that time would come. New Zealand’s coal deposits were finite. Every ton taken from the mines left a. ton less to be mined. Coal did not have the power of reproducing itself €en to the extent the forests had. Coal posits were simply an enormous store fuel in process of destruction by man. Water, on the other hand, would continue to' serve mankind long after the reluctant earth had yielded its last ton of coal, or at least long after coal had become too inaccessible, and consequently too expensive, to be used for power. “Our present reckless methods will place grave restrictions on the future generations,’’ said Dr. Henderson in conclusion. “All who have our national welfare at heart and the prosperity of those who come after us will seek in every possible way to build up a strong public Opinion against the needless consumption of coali”