N.Z. COAL SUPPLY

Hokitika Guardian, 26 October 1932, Page 6

N.Z. COAL SUPPLY

DEPOSITS ARE ALL TO SCANTY. WARNING GIVEN BY GEOLOGIST.'; f • ••• ' WISIaLI-NGT'P'N, October.: 2b. “I. cannot emphasise too 'strongly that it is duir bounden duty not to consume nec.dl.Ysly ciir valuable and. all-, too-sequty .deposits ,of coal/’ said Dr. J./H'dmlerKo'n, of the Department "of Geological Survey ini' an address’to the Wellington Philosophical Society last, evening. .‘/The; proper use of coal is as a raw material'''of' 'industry; l only,; the. residue should be used’as a source of heat/’ ■ ' 'j r ~ Dr. Henderson .said a serious objecr. Turn- to. th“ use cf coal in "the production of electricity was s>hat -New. Zealandl’s supplies were decidedly small. They had been estimated to'be sufficient;.for about ICO tears if the do-n----;sumption expanded at a certain moderate rate a? population grew. That was a very'idirii’t’period in ’the -history • 'of a nation.

• fl'he mativo •timber sufrplics pf ."the. (North Island were’ neatly exhausted, but' •when the - first , isettlers arrived! in Wellington f9O years or. so., ago almost The whole of 'the island was clothed •in dense forest. The id.-a cf a timber Scarcity -would .have appeared almost grotesque.’ At the present- tinii} the Tides/ of ex haustii)g the existing * coal deposits appeared equally so J never-. Tireless that time 'would, .come. , New/.'Zealand’s coal" deposits".. were definite. ' Every ton taken ..froria/Tha, Vniriesvle’ft a-, ton less ' to -be 'mired.. Goal 'did hot/have the (power 'cf: re,-we-,’ ducirig ..itself bveu -to the -extent'; the> forests had. Coal deposit? were simply an eriormou? store of fuel .in. process of destruction .by man. Water, -on the other lmlid, • would Continu.*. to serve mankind long after tK'v reluctant, earth, had yielded its last -tori, of coal, or at leaUt- lrtKg afterheal had become too iniuee sible, arid consequently- -too expensive, to ‘he used for cower.

1 “Oitr nWr,ent -reckless 1 methods will place gra.ve restrictions eu tbs. future genevpt’ons,” said -Dr. Henderson .in c-ncl-’Ocin. ' “All wbo lreve our national welfare at heart and tlig-prospbritv Yf those wlio co-rnq bftcir 'u.s Avill seek* in 'every Possible Way to build uri -' astroiig public 'Opinion ag?ins(t the/need-' iests consumption of c-osl.”