COAL CONSUMPTION

Southland Times, Issue 21855, 4 November 1932, Page 6

COAL CONSUMPTION

REDUCED DEMAND. “STATE PARTLY TO BLAME.” (Per United Press Association.) Wellington, November 3. Discussing reduced coal consumption in his address at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association to-day, the president, Colonel Holgate, referred to experiments in the use of carbonized coal and claimed that carbonization of brown coals in New Zealand was not only a success but would in the near future be profitable and become more generally adopted. New Zealand coalfields, he said, were a national asset and the Government had lost sight of the industry when developing hydroelectric schemes. Probably had they foreseen the results they might have considered generating power from coal, saving the country some £8,000,000. The same amount of power could have been produced and sold at certainly the same, if not less cost. There were now too many producing collieries for the output required and the State was partly to blame for continuing the issue of fresh mining leases, despite the declining output. Many leases on small areas had led to flooding of the market with cheaply mined outcrop coal to the detriment of the business of older established mining companies, reacting both on the employers and workers. Some form of co-operative effort was necessary between members of the association as the only means of overcoming the difficulties of the coal trade. The president suggested setting up a small committee to investigate the possibilities along the lines of rationalizing the industry with a view to preparing a scheme for submission, perhaps to the Government, to carry it into effect. Discussing the economic outlook, Colonel Holgate said that costs . must come down. He said that obviously New Zealand miners did not realize what the coal-owners were up against, and sooner than agree to work for less wages, they seemed prepared to strike and risk losing employment.