OIL FROM COAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 764, 10 September 1929, Page 13

OIL FROM COAL

PLANT FOR WAIKATO SATISFACTION GUARANTEED Starting with a guarantee of “money back if not satisfactory,” the Lurgfi coal carbonisation process to be erected in the Waikato coalfields should .make a big difference to the coal trade, according' to the remarks of Mr. X H. R. Mackenzie, chairman of directors of the Renown Collieries, Ltd., at the annual meeting of the company held last evening. The owners of the process had guaranteed to refund the cost, plus interest, if the plant did not prove satisfactory within six months of installation. Waikato Carbonisation, Ltd., said Mr. Mackenzie, had been registered with a capital of £IOO,OOO, the shareholders being Taupiri Coal Mines, Limited, £25,000; Pukemiro Collieries, Limited, £25,000: Renown Collieries, £15,000; and Waipa Railway and Collieries, Limited, £ 5,00 u. In order to pay their share, the directors of the Renown company had placed the balance of the company’s preference shares on the market. The issue had been oversubscribed and the shares would be allotted to applicants holding ordinary shares who had the first rights on the neAv issue. An agreement had also been made that the Renown Company would take up a further £IO,OOO in shares, after the plant had started producing, in order to bring the company’s holdings up to those of the Taupiri and Pukemiro concerns. These shares would be paid for by deducting 2s a ton from the Renown slack, giving about two and a-half years in which to liquidate the. liability. “The. carbonisation company, \ think, has a great future, and will give good results to the coal trade.” Mr. Mackenzie continued. “It will mean that after extracting the oils from the coal, our product will have, a higher calorific value than Newcastle coal, and I feel sure that the railways will take the whole of our output.” The company had secured the North Island rights for the process. It was intended to erect first a two-unit plant with an output of 150 tons a day and. if it proved successful, further units would be added.