ELECTRIC POWER

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23318, 29 September 1945, Page 4

ELECTRIC POWER

Use for Railways Supply Of Coal Limited (NZPA.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 28. "We have to concentrate on the development of electric power not only for general use but for the railway services of New Zealand, said the Minister of Works, the Hon. R. Semple, at the national conference of the Electric Power Boards and Supply Authorities’ Association of New Zealand yesterday. “In the years ahead our main trunk railways will probably be driven by electricity. I can see no other way out of it It will not pay to import bituminous coal when hydro-electric power will be here to do the job. Mr Semple said that the New Zealand sudplv of bituminous coal was diminishing rapidly. There was no bituminous coal in the North Island, but on‘v lignite coal. Some of this was inferior and some very good, but it was not the same fuel as bituminous coal from the West Coast of the South Island It was estimated that there was only 15 to 20 years’ supply of bituminous coal in New Zealand. The.e Sight be deposits yet undiscovered along the West Coast ranges, but in the meantime it was only practical to work on the figures supplied by the Mmes D ln ar view nt of these figures said th? Minister, it was necessary to look round for another source of power. That source would be hydro-electric powe. and the Works Department was on the job developing that power with the maximum speed possible Mr Semple also said that with the exception of some parts of the United States and Canada, New Zealand consumers used more units per head o. population and got it cheaper than any other people in the world We ar. also far ahead of Australia in thgeneration of power, and tn consumption by the average consumer.