The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1919. THE URGENT NEED

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10281, 16 May 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1919. THE URGENT NEED

There are signs that point to coal as the urgent need of the day. It sounds like a paradox, because there is an abundance of millions of tons of coal in the country.. What it does mean is that in the midst of' an abundance of coaF'there is a dearth of coal. And we get the fullness of this meaning when we realise that this dearth is a disgrace to all concerned —the coalowners, the coal-miners, and the Government. While the people are besieging tho dealers in vain for coal; while Ministers are being implored to make railways to abounding coal seams; while -representative deputations; "are idemanding the completion of ;. important tunnels; while civic authorities are raising warning voices of the coming winter with widespread misery; the output of coal from the abounding mines continues to decrease. To think of what this means is appalling. To realise that the source of heat, light, and power is diminishing, and rapidly approaching famine conditions, under which light will be rare, heat impossible, and power a thing unknown, is to shudder. The fact that there is abundance of coal for hewing, which ought to-be a kindler of hope, is a cause only of impotent wrath. It plunges the mind into a despair of all possible remedies, until it emerges convinced that to add to the number of coal mines, to the miles of railways, and to the industrial agreements, is to increase the pile of impossibilities, and further decrease the output of coal. The experience of years has brought us to one fixed unalterable conclusion. It is that there is only one way out of this most hideous difficulty of scarcity in the midst of plenty. There are people who believe in State coal mines, but we have State coal mines, and they only increase the difficulty. We have an Arbitration Court, but it neither settles disputes nor stops the go-slow fraud. We have had conferences whicb meet and talk, and conferences which don't meet and writes pamphlets one side against the other, and the difficulty goes on, nevertheless, with the output of coal steadily diminishing. Apparently everything has been done that is possible, even to the waving of Ministerial hands over conferences, and the reports of boards innumerable, all producing a, general suspicion that the only result is an increase of the difficulty. By all these roads there is no way out. Tho one way out is by water power. Harness it for electricity, and the way is sure as it is straight, cheap, and without likelihood of disturbance. This way, . moreover, is obvious, and—no small advantage—it has actually been begun, with results as convincing as 1 they are magnificent. Those who once opposed it with the scorn of superior persons and the flippancy of the ignorant who mishandle scientifio truth, are prorfrate before its triumph. The finance of the war has placed fifteen millions sterling apart safe and immediately ready for any great enterprise urgently requiring prompt realisation. But no one seems to appreciate the situation. The Dominion, on the one hand, is within easy distance of total loss of heat, light, and power, while, on the other, it has within easy reach an inexhaustible supply of all three. That supply is plainly visible, emerging from glaciers, stored up in lakes and springs, flowing out" in full brooks and brimming rivers rushing to waste in the vast ocean. We have but to harness that power, as much of it at a time as the millions at our disposal will enable us, to give us at once all that we can want of light, heat, and power for years and years (to come. Nay, more, we have established a harnessing of installation the results of which have set everybody talking. And yet we stand shivering on the brink of these escaping waters without the manly thought of taking hold, and thereby ending all our difficulties. What we want to realise is that it is necessary, urgently—the most urgent necessity of our time —to harness at, once, enough o| this -power ,-f~ "• ' m

to serve the whole o; Now Zen land, North, So.-.th, Centre, and West ; that we cannot afford to cut up the problem into piece;; taat we must not waste time in discussing the claims to priority of this, that, or the other scheme of harnessing. AH these things mean delay, loss, hardship. A programme of electric poiver for all New Zealand to be financed and rushed through in the quickest possible time—that is the main urgent need of the Dominion at the present moment. That is the key to the great difficult;-, on which our light, heat, and power are involved in the grip of a stranglehold impossible for the ordinary methods of resistance. The soouer we push that key into the lock and give it a mighty, most vigorous turn, the sooner shall we be able to secure the increase and improvement of production required to settle our financial situation and secure our future well-being.