COAL IN SIGHT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10287, 23 May 1919, Page 7

COAL IN SIGHT

DOMINION’S RESOURCES

BARELY ENOUGH FOR PRESENT GENERATION., GOVERNMENT GEOLOGIST’S OPINION. '• " ** ■ \ Important evidence as to the coal resource® of the Dominion was given a/t yesterday’s sitting of the Industries Committee' of the House of Representatives by Air P. J. Morgan, Director of the Geological Survey. In 1890, stated the witness, Sir James Hector estimated the workable coal in New Zealand at 443,000,000 tons. He based this estimate on data showing that the coal in the ground was 886,000,000 tons. In 1910, Professor James Park estimated the amount of workable coal in New Zealand at 1,082,089,000 tons. In 1911, the witness himself estimated the proved coal in New Zealand at 1,001,000,000 tons, and the probable coal at an additional 2.383,000,000 tons. These estimates were based on the culinary mining and geological conventions, it being assumed that seams of bituminous coal over Ift thick and semibituminous seams over 3ft thick could be worked to a depth of 4000 ft, that brown coal over 3ft ihiok could be worked to a depth of 2000 ft-, and that lignite seams over 4ft thick could be worked to a depth of 1000 ft. These assumptions were too optimistic, for New Zealand conditions, but it was necessary to adopt them in order to make coal estimates fairly comparable with those of other countries. As he pointed out , in 1913, calculations based on them needed to he heavily discounted. He had now tentatively recast his estimates, reducing them, as he believed, to bedrock. The results, unfortunately, were by no means reassuring. They were embodied in the following table: GOAL IN ■WORKABLE SEAMS. Proved and ■Class . highly . Posof coal probable. Probable, sible (million (million tons.) tons.) Anthracite ....... vy.little.vy.little sma.il Bituminous ... , 187 477 mod. Semi-Hut a min. 63 196 mod. Brown ; 194 , 728 largo Lignite 161 420 large Total ..... 610 1,821 large Tihe present yearly production of ooal in New : -’ Zealand was about 2,000,000,t0n5,, aidded Mr Morgan, but, had it not been for the war, it would probably have readied 2,500,000 tons in 19X8. If we assume, he said, that henceforward production will increase at the rate of 5 per cent, per annum (thus doubling itself every fourteen years or thereabouts), until half the proved coal is exhausted, and will then decrease in.-the same ratio until all. the coal,- is . worked, the date of mathematically calculated. If no coal is lost -in mining, then, on the assumption made, halt the proved coal will bo mined in 44J years, and all in 89 years. If all probable ooal actually exists, and can be mined, half the coal supply will last a little over 77 years, but all will be exhausted in 155 years. Those figures show that the known., coal supply of . New Zealand is inadequate for future generations. In reality, the position is ©von worse than might be supjpdsed from the data already sot out. More than half,.the ooal in the ground cannot be mined under present conditions. There is some unavoidable loss in mining. Meat New Zealand coals are prone to spontaneous combustion; and the loss, direct and indirect, caused by fire is very great. Where the seams are think, the percentage of loss in mining is considerable. In the brown ooal and lignite distrioto, from two to four feet of coal, usually has to be left to form a secure roof. The slack from brown coal and lignite mines cannot be sold at a. price sufficient to cover the cost of mining, and even friable, bituminous _ coal could not be mined at a profit prior to the war. Where ooal has to be extracted from moderate depths under water, and where a water-logged stratum overlies the coal, pillars can-' not bo extracted. The coal seams in many localities are sharply or irregularly folded, crushed, and faulted. Thin coal seams, especially those that contain stone-bands, are not at present workable. For these various reasons barely one-third of the highergrade coals and less than one-third of the lower grade can be regarded as, certainly extractable* The following figures,, therefore, represent mineable ooal: Tons. Bituminous and semibituminons ....'. 85,000,000 Brown coal and lignite ... 100,000,000 Total 185,000,000 On the same assumption os before, this quantity of coal will supply the full needs of the Dominion for loss than twenty-five years, and mil be exhausted in loss than fifty years. As a matter, of fact, our coal-mines will not bo exhausted in half a century, because the increasing price of coal will enable improved methods of extraction to bo used, and at least 60 per

cent, of the coal will be won. Moreover, I am confident that ultimately a much larger amount of coal than the 1,821,000,000 at present classed as probable coal will bo found to exist. Nevertheless, it is a fact that, the c o;i. in sight is hardy sufficients for the needs of die present generation, and, therefore, a vigorous prospecting policy is necessary if /we are to build up industry in this country, COAL, THE, PROPERTY OF THE nation.

The chief method of prospecting Required is detailed geological survey, followed by extensive boxing. Who is to do this work? Clearly, it must bo done by Government; Die cost would suitably be mot by a levy on coal produced. One penny per ton would .probably be ample. Where ooal is proved, the coat of prospecting ought to be refunded by the owner of the coal, but, in the ease of private land, many difficulties would arise. Much improved coal is buried in such land, and it might well be argued that the coal is ’ the property of the nation. The undesirability of systematically prospecting privately-owned. End at the public expense, and especially the natural unwillingness of the public to be so exploited, have forced me, as a geologist employed by the .State, to the conclusion that all coal ought to become the property of the Crown. Socialistic theory leads to tho same conclusion. There is, however, apart from Socialist ideals, a very .substantial and practical reason for State nav tionalisation of coal-mines. Tho root of this reason lies in the fact that our coal resources are small, and can be worked to the best advantage for this and other generations only by a monopoly. Even a State monopoly cannot he wholly trusted to do this, but it is certain, in tho first place, that the evils under such a system would be less than those* of private ownership; and, in the second place, that the people of this country would not tolerate any other than a State monopoly. I believe that the .great majority of those who possess an adequate knowledge of the Dominion’s coalfields agree with me in favouring. the nationalisation of the ownership of the coal mines. Whether the mines should be worked directly by the Crown, or leased to .private persons under suit able restrictions, is a question that X leave open. , . . . OOAL ROYALTIES.

It. my opinion, legislation is necessary to prevent those persons .who are fortunate enough, to own coal-hearing land from exacting exorbitant royalties. In Great Britain; jvhoro all coal land is privately owned, royalties . average 6d per ton. In some localities they are ns low as 3d a ton. In Derbyshire the overage ooal royalty is 4d a ton. ■ "WHITE COAL” AND BLACK.

In rpply to Mb- J. P./Luke, M.P., the witness-, agreed: thatKone ofj the ,first functions' of the:Government would he to develop the hydroelectric resources of the Dominion, in' order to save the coal measures.

To Air J. T. M. Hornsby, M.P.: The development of hydro-electric power, he thought, would not injure present mines. The great stimulus given to industry might even increase tho demand for coal, and it would'still be required .fpr,,doi»?st4e and -atbarßawssf*, lor which electricity'could hot be used. There were still largo, areas of land in both islands to be prospected for coal. The Mokau brown ooal. was better than the German brown, coal. 1 _ Ho had read Professor Davies’s article os to how the Germans utilised their brown coal, but we had not tho chemists in New Zealand to deal with/the question of brown ooal. The reason for the shortage <jf chemists -was , that they wore not offered adequate, salaries, and there whs no' other career open to them that there wag in other countries.

' Dr. Newman; M;P.,' mentioned Stratford and other districts in which there wore outcrops of coal, and Mr Morgan said that ho would recommend detailed surveying and boring, so as to ascertain clearly tho coal resources of tho country. He was sure it was the policy of the Government to retain the coal in its own hands. It always had been. To Mr W. A. Veitoh, M.P.: The shortage of. labour and of shipping was the cause of the present shortage, of coal. State colliers might have got over the difficulty in the past, A shortage of minors existed before tho war. He knew what mining was.. . He had been a miner, and the conditions were not very attractive. In the mining districts generally very poor provision was made for bousing the workers. Alining was ephemeral, and ‘the companies did not care to go to great expense. .Sometimes they had not the money. He thought that if wages were high enough they would get the men, and if the men were sufficiently well paid they could make their homes comfortable, The consumption of coal jn New Zealand was now two tons per head, as against six tons in England, and still more in . tho Eastern States of America, He thought, that hydroelectric power would prevent our increasing our consumption to, say, six tons per head f but he was sure that the coal industry would go on as at present. It would not ha injured by hydro-electric development. AVe should still do our utmost to develop tho coal industry.

£3,000,000 TO NATIONALISE OOAL,

To Mr T. K. Sidey, M.P.: He did not think that the nationalisation of •the coal -would be a very costly matter, if done fairly. Ho did not soo why tho owner of land covering unproved coal should have 'any compensation; but ho would pay compensation for proved coal. Prior to the war there was not Is per ton of profit in coal, and many mines were run at a loss, though latterly coal had paid bettor. Taking pre-war conditions, however, it would not have taken very much to buy out all tho coal mines in New Zealand. It was a question of bargaining, Ho thought that £3.000,000 would have done it easily in 1914. That was a guess, not an estimate. Four-fifths of the country had not yet been geologically surveyed, but nearly the whole of it had been run over by geologists. To develop tho industry as quickly as possible, the State should strengthen the Geological Survey Department, and provide a .prospecting department. ,He thought it almost essential that tho State should own the ships to carry the coal as well as the mines. To tho chairman: One penny a ton on proved coal would pay the coat of prospecting, and Id a ton on tho coal found would be ample to pay for prospecting for all minerals. The chairman: Would it be fair to make tho Westport Coal Company, for instance, pay Id a ton to help to discover rival coalfields? Mr Morgan: It would he a fair thing for the Westport Coal Company, because their land .was surveyed by the Government in 1873 and following years. On coal now won tho Id a ton would moan about £9OOO a year. He thought that tho distilling of by-pro-ducts from brown coal could bo profitably done. There were under 5,000,000

tons of known coal in the Beefton district, but the estimates of probable coal in tho district varied from 50 to 100 million tons. It would require extensive boring over the whole of tho Inangahua Valley to prove what the coal resources of the district were.

LACK OF MINERS, NOT OF COALTo Mr R. Hudson, M.P.: He did not think that it "Would be advisable for the Government to take over the working of the Puponga mine. So far as ho could remember, there was only a small block left of coal that could be worked without opening new mines. He would support, the idea of further investigating the matter. He thought the whole Puponga district should bo prospected. He did not know whether it would be advisable to take the pillars out, for then the mine was done. He also understood that the ifiine was flooded. Die coal shortage to-day was not due to want of coal, but to the want of miners; and with the same number of men they could get more coal out of the Westport mines than from Puponga. He thought it would be better at present to concentrate on a few mines, probably closing some of the present mines, and transfer the men to mines where the production of ooal per head was larger.