STATE COAL DEPOT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10077, 26 August 1910, Page 5

STATE COAL DEPOT.

WANTED FOR MASTEP.TGN. Speaking in the House of Bepresentatives on the Coal-mine Report, Mr A. W. Hogg, M.P., said:—We liave a railway line to Palmerston North, and we have a railway line running through tne Wairai'apa to Masterton, Woodville, and Napier. But there is no State coal distributed or obtainable in these places, although there is a large population. We can got plenty of Westport coal there at from £2 to £2 4s a ton, and there is plenty of Newcastle coal, but one cannot get an ounce of State coal for love or money. The Department has been asked again and again to establish depots, but they have not enterprise enough to do so. All along the line we have our townships tapped by the railway, at Carterton, Greytown, Featherston, Eketahuna, etc., and in most of those towns gasworks have been established, and. plenty of coal is being consumed. Timber is getting exceedingly scarce, ; and coal is a household necessity, yet there is no such thing as State coal to be found. Only Newcastle and Westport coal are retailed, —the coal of private companies. Our State coal is superior, to those coals —that has been my experience, at all events. I have tried again and again to get a State coal depot established in Masteroon, but I have not been able to secure it. I hope that next year I will not have to make this complaint. I shall rely upon the Minister assisting me, and I trust that he will establish a State coal depot at Masterton. The expense involved will be very slight, seeing all that is needed is a depot alongside the railway station. There is no doubt i that State coal has been of immense advantage to the people. And who is responsible for it ? The Government of the day, or any Government ? I say, No. The Government has been acting under pressure. It has been the people themselves who have demanded cheap coal. Coal is ,a most important article ; it is the bread and mainstay of our manufactures, it is used in every household where fuel is required, and as timber is growing scarce it is becoming an article of universal consumption. I do not know why the Government do not spend a little more money and provide tlieir own vessels and endeavour to reduce its price. The freight on coal from here to Masterton—sixty miles—is lis per ton, while the freight between Auckland and Masterton —over three hundred miles—is about the same. That is an illustration of the Government trying to run off their own product.