COMPETITION WITH COAL

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1930, Page 7

COMPETITION WITH COAL

OIL INDUSTRY TAKES GRIP. Successful competition with coal B/. oil was one of the factors adding to the depression at present ruling in Australia, said Mr. F.'W. Barrett, own-, er of a coal mine in New South Wales, who with his wife is returning from a holiday in Honolulu. They arrived at Auckland by the Niagara. . • Things were bad for-those in the coal business at any time, he said, but the strike which had allegedly just been settled and the high cost oi production of coal, due partly to the strike, had enabled the oil industry to obtain a firmer-hold. ;At present' prices,, he said, coal is fi"htiii" a losing battle against oil. °‘T say ‘allegedly settled,’ ”■ said Mr. Barrett, speaking about the “because unrest is still , in the air, particularly in the north.” -Letters ha' had received just recently had told that the miners though back at work and thankful to be there were still unsatisfied. Australia had not yet seen th® last of its trouble in that connection. Those, industries dependent on coal had, had to get their supplies from somewhere during the strike, and other fields .had opened and other industries had stepped into the breach conveniently, made. “But for coal trouble.” declared- Mr.- ■ Barrett, “the Queensland mines; would not have opened and made hay while the sun shone.” _p‘. However, he did not think the days of coal were numbered. He thought the comparatively new scheme of pulverising coal had a great future. Oil was also taking the -place of coal in Honolulu, he stated. Most of th® inter-island steamers which formerly were entirely coal-burning had changed over to oil. For a period in which they once needed 100,000 tons of coal they now used only seven or eight thousand tons.