COAL SUPPLIES SHORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 688, 13 June 1929, Page 9

COAL SUPPLIES SHORT

RAILWAYS NOT AFFECTED MERCHANTS KEPT BUSY Press Association WELLINGTON, Wednesday. A Wellington coal merchant stated today that there were no stocks of Newcastle coal in the city. In fact, any sort of coal is so short here that no merchant has a reserve, but all are working from day to day and, even then, are finding it difficult to keep up with the demand. In reply to a question today as to whether the Railway Department was affected at a result of the curtailment of supplies from Newcastle and of coal being obtained from England, the Minister of Railways, the Hon. W. B. Taverner, said the department was affected only so far as stocks front Newcasth were concerned. It might be possible to meet the deficiency by utilising local supplies. The Minister stated that no supplies were en route from England for the New Zealand railways. At. present the department, however, had been obtaining quotations for coal from the Old Country. Mr. T. O. Bishop, secretary of the New Zealand Coal Mine Owners’ Association, stated that the normal condition of the coal trade in New Zealand for several years past had not been sufficient to keep the mine* anything like fully employed. As far as Christchurch was concerned, the chief source of supply for her domestic trade at air rate was the Otago and Southland mines, and he was at a loss to account for the alleged difficulty of obtaining supplies for that city. The position should not it affected by Ihe strike of tlie Blackball miners, or by a strike in Australia.