THE PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1882.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXVI, Issue 4208, 25 February 1882, Page 2

THE PUBLISHED D AILY. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1882.

Although the Colony of Victoria is blessed with a good climate and fertile.: soil, and possesses unnumbered resources, yet her cup of joy hasi-rone bitter drop. She has no coal, or rather has not been able to diacQverla payable, seam Up ' till the present moment, though vast seams of money have been expended in the search. Yet: she haa not lost heart, and is now eng^geU 'in/. lodkingT fan !4he r /pifecidud'i mineral as hopefully as if she had never met with disappointment. The patience an,d energy with which the search for coal is, prosecuted by the Victorian nGovern-^ ment ia moat commendable. Having an Inexhaustible 1 supply of the commodity .ourselves, we ODly wishvre could contrive to }nfuse a little of the spirit of the jVictorian Government into our own, and get it directed towards the development of the hftrbor 'works. In order to show to what an, extent "the ■: Victorians;, have already prosecuted, -and are still prosecuting, their, search for coal, we must borrow, from an interesting repdrt of a" special " of the Argus, who 'recently visited Kilcunda for the purpose qf t ascertaining the existing state of affairs in that suppoßed carbonaceous locality. Kilcunda is in the vicinity of Cape Patterson, oi the coal seams of which bo mudh has been heard: for therlast 12 yeai^. Referring to the early history oi Kilcunda, the reporter Bays : — " They have been the subjects of numerous reports, favorable and unfavorable, by geojogistay:- bo'aYds,' and other fnteVesfed and' dif interested persons ; the collective wisdom of the country, in Parliament 'assembled, has frequently been brought to bear on-,. them,;; diverse , views have;, yeai 1 after ye'arj been put forth concerning them in the press ; ;and -yet, notwithstanding j tho vast and energetic expenditure of breath and ink upon them, what carboniferous resources the colony possesses there, remain undeveloped. About 7000 tons of 1 coal have been sent frd'm ; Kilcunda, and about 2000 tons from Cape Pattereon ; and mining operations are now almost entirely at a standstill at the former place, and have altogether ceased at Cape Patterson." Notwithstanding adverse reports and many failures, and a most unfavorable -report by : a qualified board, and who. after examining the country, 'said they had ' * observed l!nowhere those thick , well-bedded sandstones and homogeneous shales which are characteristic of rich coal meaaurea," prospecting operations ;are still being carried on, as will be abundantly: shown) by the following' extract from tha report : — v Five bores have been made with diamond drills by the Government in thia locality, and a, sixth, is being made^ All these bores are within a strip of land along the coast, about four miles loug, beginning near. thY Western port Co;J Mining Company^ shaft, and ranging in width from 1£ mile to half a j mile. The first four bores were made with a small drill, which began to work towards the end of 1879, and of these the first waa put down at three quarters of a mile from the coast. At 157 ft. the drill went through 6in. o$ coal • at 2?lft. through 6in, of a"black, earthy substance, with Bmall pieces of coal and fossil ; at 312fr., 478 ft., 492 ft- 710 ft,, and 738 ft., thin veins of coal, none of which was more than 3in. thick, .were cut through and at 1,090 ft. boring was discontinued on account of the hoisting gear ; being insufficient to bear such a weight of rods. This is the deepest bore 1 made in [the district." The reporter then describes ; in. detail the result of a number of other borings ranging from' lOOft' to 800 ft, in the course of which the majority, of the coal seams discovered were froijd i'j an inch up to 3 and 4 incbep, excepc in one where a 2ft. Bin. seam was struck, and which thpse interested would; magnify • into a 3ft seam. Altogether, this bore (No. 4) wenTdowii 612ft.' l(Hn., passing through two more seams,, one of lOin. and the other of 6in. . .It. is intended to thoroughly test the strata by sinking 2000 ft. It wiy. be, seen, from the foregoing wKat sfender hopes thtire are bf ! the Victorians getting a payable coal seam , in Wefltdrn Port; and yet there are ' Banguine spirits who profess to believe that New South Wales, with its wealth of can coal be competed with if the Victorian seams were opene'd'upV : The reporter aays that "various estimates are given as to the cost at which Kilcunda coal could be delivered in Melbourne, but about 153. a ton, exclusive of the interest on the capital expended, seems an average estimate. But the estimate is based on the^ assumption that the coal would be conveyed from JKilcunda to Griffith's ( Point by railway or tramway at Is. a ton." One thing, however, seems to be clear from the .foregoing, that if Victoria. had| the coal measures of£Greymouth she woijld not long be in want of a port,