COAL FOR RAILWAY USE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 December 1931, Page 2

COAL FOR RAILWAY USE

LOCAL ORDERS. NO IMPORTATION SINCE JULY AUCKLAND, Dec. 19. Inundated wjtli requests to take additional supplies of coal from practically all the colleries in New Zealand, the Railways Department lias been forced to distribute its orders as equitably as possible, hav ng regard to the quality and price of the coal.

“The stocks are greatly in excess of present requirements,” stated a letter from the Minister of Mines, received by the council of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. He explained that Department had been compelled owing to reduced train running to reduce its orders for coal. Two of the principal mines on the West Coast were now receiving orders from the Department; and, in consequence, of the reduced railway orders and the depressed state of the coal market, one of the largest coal mines in the Dominion was working only one day a week. In the clreiimstaffces, it did ilot appear that the Department could meet the chamber in Its suggestiPh that iffereased orders for coal supplies should 'be given to the Hikurattgi and Wilson’s Colleries In the North, There I was the prospect, however, that dur- [ b'«r the summer the orders from the Waikato mines might be reduced and transferred to the Kikurangi mines.