WASTAGE OF COAL

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 28, 17 February 1937, Page 14

WASTAGE OF COAL

--Preis AssociatioB.)

Savings System Proposed in . Southland

(By Telearsph-

INVEECABGILL, Feb. 15. v The alarming waste of small coal in some of the mines in New Zealand was discusaed by the Minister of Mines, Hon. P, 0. Webb, and repreaentatives of the Southland eoal industiy at af private conference today. In a statement after the meeting Mr. Webb said be was pleased to s&y that much had been done to recover the wastage ia jaorthern mines, and he was very hope* ful as a reralt of to-day's conference of establishing a savings system in1 Southland. "As Minister of Hines I have been yery much alarmed at the enonnous waste of small eoal that has been and is jtaking place, especially in the Waikato and Southland brown coal mines," said Mr. Webb. "In this district alone between 10,000 and 20,000 tons are destroyed annually while in the Waikato district over 300,000 tons a year are destroyed. A conference with Waikato coal mina owners was ealled and it was unanimously agreed to adopt a uniform three-quarter inch sexeen in all mines. This zesulted in a saving of at least 10 per cent. of small coal, representing in ; Waikato from 850 to 400 tons a day. ■ >The scheme is operating very success1 ' fully and a market has been fonnd for all small coal and wastage has been completely eliminated, . Furthermore, ' companies are filling out of an old ' .30,000 ton dump of slack, from 300 to 400 tons a day to meet the demand. I ' am quite confident as far as the slaok 'problem in Waikato is concerned, that :a solution in uniform screening has been found. This experience has; prompted me to call a conference of| .Southland coal mining interests andj after discussing the matter, the com-| > tpanies' xepresentatives were unanimousf | . that the introduction of a similar sys-; tem of uniform screening over a threequarter inch mesh would solvs the slack problem here,"