COAL INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 July 1939, Page 7

COAL INDUSTRY

MINISTER CALLS CONFERENCE. PRODUCTION AND MARKETING. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A conference of representatives of the United Mine Owners and the Coal Mine Owners’ Federation has been called by the Ministers of Mines, Mr Webb, for Tuesday to discuss the present situation in the coalmining industry.

"The coal position from the domestic point of view has been seriously affected by bad weather conditions prevailing on the West Coast." said the Minister in an interview yesterday. "The bars at Greymouth and Westport have been unworkable and any holdup has an immediate reflex in the domestic trade, as so much of the coal from the West Coast is marketed in Wellington. Reports from the South Island indicate that the position is well in hand and no real shortage is anticipated. "With the closing down of freezing works and many dairy factories for the winter the demand for steam coal is now at its lowest ebb and mines producing large quantities of steam coal are experiencing difficulty in obtaining a market on account of the coal’s slack condition. The gas industry has been seriously affected owing to the reduction of West Coast supplies occasioned by weather conditions. The question of employing more miners in some districts to add to the production of household coal has been delayed by the lack of housing accommodation, and this is to be one of the matters to be discussed at the coming conference.”