COAL SLACK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19983, 28 October 1927, Page 6

COAL SLACK

POWER BOARD’S SUPPLY BENEFIT UNDER (CONTRACT Coal slack is purchased in large quantities by the Wanganui-Rangitikei Electric Power Board, and when there is a shortage of water at Mangahao and the Board is selling power back to the Public Works Department, the consumption by the Board’s steam plant is as great as 40 tons a day. Consequently, when the price of slack

was increased the other day from 7/6 to 12/6 a ton, it looked as though the Board would be faced with a considerable increase in its running cost. In this connection, however, the Board is fortunate, as it has a contract with one of the mines, under which it will be supplied at the old rate. The coal slack used is of the lignite type and comes from the Waikato. It is used extensively by the power boards and freezing works, but it is understood that the movement in the market has been caused by the Auckland demand. A contract for supply to feed its steam plant was held by the Auckland Power Board, but the mines were unable to forward the quantity stipulated. The Auckland Board pressed for the fulfilment of its contract, with the result that the associated coal mines of the Waikato were forced to erect a crushing plant in Auckland and crush good household coal down to fine slack. Naturally an increase in the price of slack fiom the Waikato mines was the result.

The local Board’s ordinary demand amounts to ten tons a day, but with the summer weather coming on, it might reasonably be supposed that Mangahao will be making more frequent demands, resulting in the maximum daily consumption of 40 tons being reached.