WHANGAEEI COAL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXV, Issue 3650, 31 March 1869, Page 3

WHANGAEEI COAL.

It will be remembered that a correspondent, whose letter we published a short time ago, stated that a trial was about to be made of the quality of the coal recently discovered at Whareora. On the last trip of the ' Halcyon ' arrangements were made to have a quantity of the coal tested by Mr. Frank Hampton, the engineer of the vessel, and accordingly 16cwt. were taken from the surface and placed on board. Mr. Hampton tried it on the way down to Auckland, and he assures us that it is far suporior to any coal that he has hitherto supplied in the colony. He has used the Waikato, Bay of Islands, Whangarei, and Newcastle coals without any alteration of the bars of the furnace ; but for clearness, and power of generating steam, the Whareora coal is infinitely superior to all of them. It burns to a clear white ash, and leaves little clinker. Moreover, it lasts considerably longer than the Newcastle coal, which is in itself a very great advantage. Mr. Hampton had boen in the habit of burning on an average 4ewt. per hour; but though more steam was produced, and it was frequently found necessary to open the the furnace doors in order to moderate the heat, only 3cwt. of the Whareora coal was consumed per hour. Mr. Hampton has the utmost confidence in the superiority of the new coal, ai)d expresses his belief that the seam will be found to improve the further it goes from the surface. He says it resembles the Grey coal. A drive is now being put in, and a sample of the coal, taken some distance from the surface, will be tested. The new seam is on Mr. Crater's ground, situate- about three miles from the river, so that it' will be necessary to construct a tramway, in order toj| bring j down the coal in .large quantities.