RAILWAY COAL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23315, 26 September 1945, Page 6

RAILWAY COAL

General Manager’s Criticism Minister In Reply (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 24. “If the general manager of railways, Mr J. Sawer, has been correctly reported, I c n onlj’ say quite frankly that his statement to the Railway Officers’ Institute is not only far from helpful in a problem of considerable difficulty, but also inaccurate and misleading, especially in regard to opencast coal,” said the Acting-Minister of Mines, Mr J. O’Brien, to-night. The Minister said that, with an equal reservation about politics, it could have been stated that had open-cast mining not been developed in New Zealand on the initiative of the Mines Department the railway services would have collapsed long ago, with resultant chaos to industry and public distress. Quality of Open-cast Supply “Mr Sawers specifically mentions three open-cast mines in his published statement—Waitewhena, Otorohanga, and Ohai—and by implication places the label of bad quality on all opencast coals,” continued the Minister. “According to the Dominion Laboratory, the Waitewhena coal by analysis contains 17.6 per cent, moisture and 4 per cent, of ash. Compare this with Waikato coal, which contains 16.1 per cent, of moisture and 3.4 per cent, of ash.”

Mr O’Brien said that Waitewhena coal was lumpy and should be suitable for certain types of usage in locomotives, but was produced in a district with a heavy rainfall and there was difficulty in keeping it free from fireclay, which was constantly slipping from the hillsides over the working faces.

Mr O’Brien said he recognised the problems which faced the locomotive crews in dealing with this coal, especially if it was used almost immediately after it was mined, but short of an expensive washing plant, it was not easy to - remedy matters. Engineers were looking into the ways of keeping the coal cleaner, but it was a gross mis-statement to assert that the average run of this coal consisted of 41 per cent, moisture and ash.

The Minister similarly defended the qualities of the Otorohanga and Ohai open-cast coals. The latter was similar in quality to the other Ohai coals mined in the same locality. Until a month ago no complaints had been received concerning this coal, but in August soft coal and stone intrusion was encountered in a seam and some trucks were filled with this coal ih error. No complaints had been received since that error was rectified.

The Minister said there was nq mystery about the fact that more coal was used for less railway miles than in 1939, nor had that fact anything to do with the quality of native coal, which could not be altered by the simple process of wishing. Until early in 1943 the department had used a high proportion of bituminous or hard coal which gave better results. When the supplies of Newcastle coal ceased in 1943 the Railways Department lost not only that source of hard coal but also lost up to 100,600 tons annually of New Zealand bituminous coal, which had to be diverted from the railways to maintain the gas services. In these circumstances the railway services had to be mantained with lower grades of fuel. This had made the railwaymen’s job harder, but there was no other way in the meantime of maintaining the services.

Mr O’Brien said he asked railwaymen for their understanding and tolerance. The coal stocks in the railway depots were extremely low’, but now the domestic trade was abating there should be a progressive increase in the stock position. Tire Minister reiterated that open-cast mining had saved the country's transport and industrial system from collapse.