OHAI COALFIELDS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVII, Issue 23113, 30 January 1945, Page 4

OHAI COALFIELDS

Purchase By The State (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 29. The Minister of Mines (the Pon. P. C. Webb) announcing to-day that the Government had decided to purchase the Wairaki colliery, also the opencast area known as the Ohai collieries and the right to win coal from the Morley coalfield, all in the Ohai district, Southland, said the owners of the properties referred to had offered to sell the areas to the State some months ago. Since that time negotiations had been in progress betw’een the Mines Department and the owners. The Wairaki colliery contains approximately 1,250.000 tons of proved recoverable coal and is a well equipped and going concern, said the Minister. The purchase price of this undertaking, which included roughly £9OOO in cash, debtors and other liquid assets, was £42.000. For the open-cast area, which contains a large quantity of coal capable of being won by open-cast methods, the agreed price was £14.000. and for the rights to the Morley area, proved bv boring to contain not less than 2 500.000 tons of coal, the price was £20,000. The Minister said that both the Wairaki colliery and the Ohai opencast mine were payable undertakings, and it was expected that thev would represent sound investments for the State. The Morley area was undeveloped, but boring carried out by the former owners, which w’ould be supplemented by additional drilling by the Mines Department, indicated that a large quantity of good qualit.v coal

existed in the field under conditions which might permit mechanised development. which the Mines Department was most anxious to introduce into coal mining in the Dominion, where natural underground conditions made it possible to do so.