NEW ZEALAND COAL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1882, 20 October 1874, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND COAL.

To tlie Editor of the Thames advertiser. Sib,-One of pur correspondents oil coal makes a statement or two that contradicts the Government report by Dr Hector. He said that all the coal found in New Zealand is the brown coal.; According to Dr Hector we have three or four different sorts of coal; wo have the bituminous, the glance, the anthracite, and others. Whareoru, Whangarei, and the Bay is the glance coal, but ihe Waikato and the one across the Firth is the brown coal, which belongs tojauother formation, from the Whangarei or the Bay. There are certain peculiarities connected with each formation, They may be a little better or worse in different places, " but the, same sort in the same formation; the same as wood you may have better and worse of the same sort, of wood. But kauri never becomes tea-tree; you nevor come to a . good seam of coal in a bad system of rocks; indeed some systems of rocks have no coal in them, as for instan'co the three first stratified primitive rocks have no coal in them. What is in great favour all over the world is the great carboniferous system, where they get their best coals, same as. Durham,. Newcastle, England, and in most parts of Scotland. And I think the coal in Newcastle, Australia, is the saiiie formation. It is a formation that lies' right between the old • and l new red sandstone. It is a great thickness when it is all on; I suppose a mile perpendicular. Another mistake your correspondent make* is that the brown' coal has 50 per cent, fixed carbon, whereas the highest percentage of carbon in the brown coal is 43 per cent, and a few fractions. Bat the great drawback to the brown coal is the water in it. It generally contains 20 per cent, ot water,and that combined chemically, when almost all the other coals do not contain more than 6 per cent, water. ; Many people recommend deep sinking in order to find good coal. I know a little about coal, but I do not know what they mean by this. When they have got through the seam of coal why sink deeper, without they want to sink for auother seam of coal. And then it dies not always follow that the lowest seam is the best; I have known it the very worst. There has been a great deal of sinking and boring in New Zealand without judgment. It would bs foolish to sink for coal in a system of rock where no coal has hitherto been found in the world.—l am, &c., J. Hoen. October 17,1874.