A NEW COAL COMPANY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1067, 4 March 1911, Page 6

A NEW COAL COMPANY.

Tliis morning we publish the abridged prospectus of the. linnna Colliery Company, Ltd. The two things which usually' operate against coal companies are distance of haulage and deep sinking. The, Humla Company appears to be unusually fortunate. It connects by a six-milfl branch railway with the Main Trunk at Papakura, only nineteen miles from Auckland, and it requires no shaft-sinking or the driving of long and expensive tunnels. According to the report of Mr.'John llayes, F.S., Sc., the well-known Wellington n.uning engineer, the coal is ootid to the best Kaitangata, is good alike for household and steam purposes, and tlio area proposed (o lie acquired by-4lie company, with adjoining areas over which options are held, contain at tlio lowest estimate from eight (o ten million tons ef coal. Considering its nearness .to Auckland, it., mav seciii surprising that this vast body of coal should not have been exploited before, but lhe.re was no communication save by an unfiiclalled hilly road, and the district was an a stato of inanition. Within the Inst two years, however, a splendidly graded road baa been put through the lltimia• Oorgo (on the opposite .side of which Ihe proposed railway would run), and this has given tile district a very great impel;:.*. So good is the read that molnr cars aso it regularly; The provisional <li vectors aro Messrs. 'Sidney Kirke.aldie. Gerald Vity.-'' gorald, C.U.. and H. W. Willaiw, all of' Wellington, which will be the liradcuiarlers of the Company. Mr. Mayes's repM states that even with the small output of 50.000 tons per annum., coal cot,ld bo placed on wagons at Papakuva for Vs. fid. - per ton., and lie_ estimates that at an' average selling price of lis. per lon for all classes, the profit should be .£11.2.10; or nil per cent. : on a capital railed ur- lo '33.0(10. Tlio company's capital is fixed at JOT,OOO to allciv ample far all i«iuii*« uicnts.