KING COAL TOTTERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 813, 6 November 1929, Page 16

KING COAL TOTTERS

OIL BURNERS NOW USED EXTENSIVELY POSITION IN AUSTRALIA Giving evidence before the Coal Commission in Australia, Sir Frederick George Waley, manager of the Bellambi Coal Company, Ltd., said the number of steamers using oil fuel and internal combustion engines had represented a direct diminution of the demand for southern coal. During the past few years the big fleets of the Orient S.N. Co., Ltd., P. and O. S.N. Co., Ltd., and P. and O. Branch Line, had practically swung over entirely from coal to oil-burners, and other vessels were being similarly converted. This had made a great inroad into the southern trade, and equally serious had been the substitution of coal-burning vessels by ships with internal combustion engines. Referring to dirt and foreign matter in coal, he said a great deal more care could and should be exercised by the miner. In a number of instances, when skips came to the surface, there was evidence of what must be described as carelessness. Witness stated that in his opinion the southern coal trade would continue to diminish. The future of the trade, in his opinion, would be limited to the supplying of bunkers to tramp steamers, and that class would also diminsh, as old coal-burning steamers were replaced by modern vessels. PULVERISED COAL He added that interesting experiments were being carried out with powdered coal blown into the boilers and mixed with air in the same way as oil. Coal-owners were reasonably entitled to hope that in time this method of using pulverised fuel would offer an alternative to oil-burning. If the use of this form of fuel should prove generally successful, it would offer an alternative both to motorships and oil-burners when owners were considering the building of new tonnage. The effect on Australian trade of the bonus given to ships bunkering at South Africa was great, said Sir Frederick. At least one line of steamers during the last 12 months had arrived at Australia with large quantities of South African coal. As a result, steamers which previously took 1,500 tons of southern coal, now took only 400 tons. He could not see how a bonus could be paid here. Witness said it would be difficult to suggest means for obtaining reasonable continuity of employment for all the employees in the industry, owing firstly to the total potential coal output being considerably in excess of the demand. COMPENSATION SCHEMES Discussing methods to be adopted in the provision of compensation in the event of the closure of uneconomic mines, Sir Frederick said that the question appeared to be more a social than an economic one. He did not see how any special treatment to coal miners could be dealt with short of the State endeavouring to find them openings, say, on the land, or in some other direction. He did not think it was the function of the State! to find compensation for mines that may have to be closed down through economic reasons any more than for any other business in similar circumstances in which capital was employed.