COAL SUPPLIES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 249, 2 August 1937, Page 9

COAL SUPPLIES

EVENT OF AUSTRALIAN STRIKE. THE MINISTER’S PLANS. (Special to the “ Guardian.”) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. “If there is another big strike in Australia, such as there was a few years ago, when no coal came from there for 12 months, I am confident that' the New Zealand industry will quickly adapt itself to the situation and supply the increased demand,” said the Minister for Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) in a statement yesterday. “Should a strike occur, I may say definitely, within 24 hours I would call a conference of the mine-owners and the mine workers to face up to the position, and the public can rest assured that all the New Zealand re quirements can be met here,” said the Minister. There would be no difficulty, said the Minister, in supplying all the slack coal for steaming and bunker purposes from the West Coast mines if the need arose. In fact, the sale of this coal would be a blessing to the industry. A market would thus be found for some 50,000 tons of small coal or slack, and the sale of this slack was of great importance to the industry. Unless the mines could market this slack it was impossible for them to produce household coal, working profitably.