COAL STOCKS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 523, 5 May 1933, Page 2

COAL STOCKS

DOMIN1QN DEROS1TS .'"ti

PROYED RESOURCES WILL LAST ONLY 100 " YEARSl EXPERTS' DE CLAR ATION . Nearly a hundred years ago the white settlement of New Zealand he- j gan, and it was not loiig hefore the colonists began to look about them for coal as fuel. This they found in comparatively large quantities and in many j.'arts of the country. At first the coal was mined only in a small way, but as the population increased, in like ratio the coal-miriing 'activities increased. The total output of the various coal mines since the beginning of European occupation of New Zealand was nearly 76 million j tons up to the end of i931. For the last twenty years the yearly output of the mines has been about two- million tons, rising in some years to tw'o and a half million tons. As populaj tion increases, the average coal consumption per head tends also to increa.se. Assuming that the average consumption in New Zealand remains at ahout two and a half million tons per year, and that half the proved coal will ultimately he mined, New Zealand's proved coal resourees will last for only a little over one hundred years longer. "This," remarked Dr. J. Henderson, Director of Geological Survey, when lecturing to the (Wellington miosophical Society on "The Coal Resourees of New Zealand," is a vevy short period in the life of a nation. Though already over 90 years old we, as judged by our dependence on many -essential imports and on th'e distress the recent cutting off of external loans has produced, have not yet reached the self-supportmg adult stage. When we do, our coal consumption will greatly increase and the life of our reserves will be reduced." . -p. At the outset of his lecture, Dr Henderson touches on knowledge that ancient peoples had of coal deposits, and briefly enumerated the vanout theories held hy geologists and others as to the formation of coal. He deall in detail with the distribution of coa throughout New Zealand and with th( nature of the deposits, tellmg a graphic geological story of the structui* of the country and how it has, beei subjeeted to continuous upheavals n _ ncrax. He Dointed ou

the difficultieal that there are in the way of making, any satisfactory estimate of the amount of coal that might be considered as proved, "prohahle,"' or "possible " In countries of regular and Mtle dist^® coal-measures such as Europe.Noit America, South Africa, and in which seams maintam then thickness over hundreds of square imles, the eeologist could arrive at dependable estimates, but in New where a thick seam may grade mto shale or altogether thm out m a few chains, and where most of the coal fields are strongly faulted,_ the est mates of different geologists weie likelv to differ widely. It must be understood, he said, that the estimates given were for coal m the ground, and not for coal extractable under present conditions Wixhout Unancial loss. "In other cotmtaes where mining conditions are moie favourable than in New Zealand an extraction of 75 per cent. is m general not considered bad practice. 1 New Zealand I doubt if more an half of the higher rank coal or mor than a third of the lower rank coal is at present heing extracted, the iemainder heing either destroyed by fire or otherwise irretrievably lost The followin table was compued y Dr Henderson to show the Dommion s coal resourees. The figures aie gim in millions of tons, and mclude fo bituminous coal seams of one «r, and for sub-bituminous coab and lignite seams of three feet a OV0r:COALFIELD RESERVES

Prvd. rrbie. ross. r-katf Ck,aM " 135 135 Waikato .. •• •• •• 9 moderate MokalVanganui 50 250 toga Gollingwood 7 100 sn, , Murchison 1 ZP moderate Keefton ™ "ge Inangahna d ^ Westport 100 - Charleston - 8 8 iaig® Greymouth U« 476 sr.aH Canterbury 28 la g. N.E. Otago 4 10 small Tokomairiro 2d 200 large West Southland .. 5 200 large Otago Central .. .. 20 200 moderate 20* 200 large