THE RECENT COAL DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1791, 2 May 1874, Page 4

THE RECENT COAL DISCOVERIES IN OTAGO.

[WBLLIWTOK INDEPENDENT.]

It would be impossible to over-estimate the importance of the telegraphic intelligence received from Dunedin of the discovery of a magnificent bed of coal within two or 'three miles of an authorised line of railway, and but a short distance from the sea shore. This bed, with seams in it from three to twenty feet thick, extending over 60 square miles, and estimated to contain 1,000,000,000 tons of coal, will prove to be of untold value to New Zealand for many reasons. Giant strides have recently been made in the Colony towards the attainment of a position that its resources have long warranted, and the discovery of the coal bed almost seems to illustrate tha old proverb that Heaven helps those who help themselves. To the question what may be done in the Colony with good coal at less than LI per ton, the replies are almost innumerable. There are the valuable iron ore deposits of Nelson and Auckland, which it appeared to be practicable to turn to account before, and which with cheap coal may certainly be converted to their proper value and utility. The great drawback that would be experienced in the establishment of rolling mills wauld be the enormous expense of keeping, with imported fuel, the metal for a long period at a white heat whilst it was slowly being passed through the- rollers. With cheap coal the rails that are wanted for the public works of the Colony, and the : plates that are wanted for boilers, and to be cut up in the manufacture of machinery, will all be home made. An immense impetus will by it be given to the coasting and intercolonial shipping trade. We are not aware that the coal from the new bed is likely to be well adapted forsteam purposes, but till it has been tested we may fairly hope that the owners of the steamers will be at once placed in a position to extend their trade, and perhaps seek new fields for their exertion. The project for a line of powerful steamers to trade directly between New Zealand and Great Britain may be revived. Cheap coal at our doors will powerfully aid in securing the practically boundless trade that may be opened with the islands in the South Seas. It means a sensible decrease in household expenditure, and therefore a real increase to incomes. From the estimate given that coal will be sold in Dunedin at 12s per ton, the presumption follows that the seams are at no great distance from the surface.

The mere fact of the discovery of a gift a thousand millions of tons of coal to the Colony, worth 12s per ton, less the coat of extraction ia one of the smallest and least important features in connection with the discovery, that has been made. No one who : has seen the forest of shipping at Newcastle in New South Wales — sometimes amounting to from one to two hundred ships- of large burden from every civilised country under the sun — would suppose that the actnal value of the export of coal from the Colony is not large ; but the trade which it creates and brings is of vast importance. Whether the coal from Tokomairiro can be produced at a sufficiently low rate to be profitably exported in large quantities is a problem that has yet to be solved, but the presumption is that it can. The value attached to it b about the same as that of good coal at Newcastle, and if the one be -of ; as serviceable quality as the other, a portion of the Newcastle trade must be diverted to New Zealand. We are tlad to see that the authorities were alive to the importance of affording every facility for the development of the new trade that may ; be expected to spring up. A surveyor was at once despatched to survey a line to connect the coal-field with the main line, from which it is about three miles distant. Those three miles might be made in a very short time, and the traffic be in full swing. It is so important that cheap coal, if procurable, should ba to hand at the earlist possible moment, that extra effort is desirable.

It is not necessary for us to dilate at length on the pertinence of the discovery to the course of events north of the Equator. In England, but hut year, there was a coal famine. Years ago apprehensions were indulged in that the supply, inexhaustible as it had been deemed, has been seriously lessened. From it there were being taken nearly a hundred millions of tons per annum, a portion of which was exported to countries in which there were abundant coal deposits. No foresight is required to arrive atjthe conclusion, that with but a limited supply of coal the commercial supremacy of Great Britain would be at dn end. With dearer labor, and an increased expenditure both on the first cost of ' machinery and in the subsequent working of it, Manchester and Birmingham manufacturers could not successfully compete with their foreign rivals. The n

the melancholy picture of the New Zealander gazing on the deserted streets and ruined warehouses of London might seem to be in a fair way from' accomplishment.. Here, be it observed, the prospect is just the reverse. The warehouses, it is probable, will be built, and the highways of traffic will be created. With abundance of coal, iron, wool, flax, and gold being produced in our midat, Anglo-Saxon energy and ingenuity will be able to lay the foundation for New Zealand of a great and prosperous future.