Kamo Coal Company.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 4353, 26 April 1884, Page 3

Kamo Coal Company.

The following ia the report read at the meeting of shareholders in theKamoColliery Company on April 2 :— " Your directors, in presenting their annual report and balance-sheet, are pleased that, notwithstanding the heavy expenditure incurred in opening up the mine, erection of machinery, purchase of freehold property and steamers, the future of the undertaking is so very satisfactory. In the development of the mine your directors have been guided by your manager, in whom the Board has great confidence. Reference to his report for his opinion ef our future prospects will be more satisfactory than anything we, as non-experts, may present as our belief. From the manager's report it will be seen that, within threemonths, the necessary railway and underground works will be completed, which, in his opinion, will permanently place the colliery in the list of dividend-paying mines. Your

directors, after a careful investigation of the affairs of the Company, believe there is no reason to differ from tho manager in his predictions with reference to the payment of dividends. Your directors have purchased from J. Mitohelson and Co. their proneral store at Kamo on the most advantageous terms, and believe it will prove to be a profitable concern. The freeholds rocently acquired being to the depth oPthc present workings, and being (so far as can be ascertained) in perfectly undisturbed country, should be of great value. There is also on this land a large deposit of merchantable marble of excellent quality. The coal now being worked is within a few feet of these properties (see plan), and retains its original thickness of nine feet. Tho quality, also, is as good as could be desired, tho engineor of our steamer Waitaki, together with other engineers, reporting most favourably upon it. So soon as the railway is completed from the main lino to tho shaft, say in about two months, and connection is made botweon tho shaft workings and the old mine, estimated to take about three months, we shall be able to win our coal at such low rates as to ensuro upon a small output, substantial returns. Tho Board regrets their inability to purchase a suitable hulk in the Colonies, and were compelled to buy one at San Francisco. Pending her arrival tho Company is unable to supply a contract entered into with the Union S.S. Company for tlio supply, in Auckland, of 1,000 tons of coal per month, to bo increased at the option of tho U.S.S. Company to 2,000 tons per month. To enable tho Company to supply the abovo coal, your directors havo purchased the steamship Waitaki, and at a price which they believe to bo considerably less than her value. The company has received an order from the New Zealand Shipping Company for a quantity of coal to bo supplied to their s.s. British King, expected to arrive in Auckland about the 29th April, and tho representative of Messrs Shaw Savill Company, at an interview with one of your directors, promised to coal tho first of their line with us. So soon as the hulk arrives your company will bo in a position to supply with coal, in any quantity, direct ocenn and other steamers trading to this port. Your directore havo also ordered from England ono of Rigg's patent coal tipping machines and curved balanced scieen, which they feel confident will reduce the cost of winning by at least one shilling and twopence per ton, besides improving the quality and ensuring all coal being well screened.— Thomas Moitnix, Chairman.—3lstMarch, 1854."