SHORTAGE OF COAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 142, 16 May 1940, Page 8

SHORTAGE OF COAL.

Why New Zealand with immense coal deposits, high wages for miners, and working conditions which are regarded as second to none, should be passing through a period of marked shortage m supplies cannot be comprehended by the average citizen. Certainly he knows that stand-by plants arevoperating in several centres to provide electric power for the main system, because there is not sufficient coal to keep the boilers at the Auckland and Wellington stations at their fullest pitch, these plants using this source of heat. And while this is takingplace the standby services at Palmerston North and elsewhere are using large quantities of imported fuel oil whose cost is met from the London exchange funds, at a time when private traders are not able to import to maintain their businesses efficiently and the greatest war in the Empire’s history is being fought. Furthermore, certain train services must be curtailed, some affecting Palmerston North. The position is one to give cause for national anxiety with the winter at hand and people urgently in need of fuel. It suggests a scandalous state of affairs that calls for an immediate remedy. The public should be given the facts. The outcome of the present conference in_ the industry will be watched with close interest.