SUSTAINED EFFORT

Opotiki News, Volume X, Issue 1041, 28 October 1947, Page 4

SUSTAINED EFFORT

STATE OPEN-CAST MINE TERRIBLE WEATHER FACED MEN PERFORM GREAT JOR There are two men in Westport you. should see if you are looking for those who arc putting their back into jobs of national importance. One is Mr. G. Elliot, the Waterfront Control Commission’s representative in Westport; the other is Mr. W. Elliott, secretary of the local branch of the Waterside Workers’ Union. Each can tell you about a sustained effort that is not outmatched by any. other body of Now Zealanders, in a job that is of vital importance to production in New Zealand and therefore in any scheme to aid Britain.

Westport is a coal port, over whose wharves pass up to -100,000 tons of coal annually—coal to run the railways, to bunker overseas ships, to power dairy factories and freezing works, and to process cement. Coal From the Clouds It’s quite an experience to have several tons of coal hurtle to you through the clouds. But tliat happens to nine out of ten travellers on the “Burma Road”, the tortuous and steep road that leads to the State open-cast mine above Stockton, on the West Coast of the South Island.

The open-cast mine is at an altitude of nearly 3000 feet, which explains the clouds; the coal it yields is transported initially by monster lorries running in regular relays. One of New Zealand's foremost production jobs is being carried on at the open-cast mine—one tiiat directly assists Britain as well as being vital to the Dominon’s economy. This coal provides bunkers for shipping, coastal and overseas,

fuel for the railways, for cement works, and for freezing works. The open-cast mine’s high production figures are. achieved under great difficulties. The coal is mined by explosives and machines; it is transported by other machines. But all the machines must have men to work them and these men work in weather that has to be seen to be believed.

In broad daylight a driver at one end of his machine may not be able to see the other; trucks travel during the daytime with headlights full on; in torrential rain bus drivers who travel over the road several times daily have to stop and leave the cab, to see where they are.

Ail official weather station is maintained at the open-cast workings. Its record shows that last year the area had nearly 22 feet of rain on 205 days, besides wind and snow, and sometimes a combination of all of them. At one period there were 47 consecutive days of rain; in one day alone nearly a foot of rain. But there has been only half a day’s stoppage of work since opencast mining began at Stockton three years ago. That was because the trucks which haul the coal could not pass over a flooded road.

On the day oil which nearly a foot of rain fell, December 9 last year, the open-cast workers recovered 505 tons of coal and the lorries carted a further 771 tons from a neighbouring mine. In the blizzards—and they may occur at any time of the year—-bull-dozers clear the snow from, the coal and the men go on with the job. Nearly all the workers arc in the open throughout, their working day. Drill-rig crews, who make the bore-liolcs for explosives, have no shelter of any kind. Power-shovel operators are without enclosed cabins because those would prevent them from seeing what they were doing in the mist. Lorry-drivers must lean out of their cabs to see where they are going.