WESTPORT HARBOR ENQUIRY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 8 October 1913, Page 5

WESTPORT HARBOR ENQUIRY.

FURTHER EVIDENCE

BY TELEGIIAPH PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, Oct. 7. At the afternoon sitting of the Westport Harbor Commission. Mr Percy Gates Morgan, director.of the geological survey department, gave evidence that the life of the West Coast coalfields was about fifty years. He estimated the known coal 'in !^e\Y Zealand would last about 105 years. Mr Munro: What would it qost to make a railway up the Ngakawau Gorge? "Vv itness: It depends upon how it was made. If it were made by co-opera-tive labor it would cost £60,000 a mile (Laughter.) The cost would, he thought, be from £30,000 to £40,000 a mile. Frank Reed, consulting engineer to the State Mines Department, considered that Blackburn should be prospected by more drilling before any capital was soent in its exploitation." He would suggest that the Harbor Board should not be allowed to have any more attempts at drilling. Any public money expended, such as Harbor Board money, should be spent under the supervision 'of the Mines Department. Geologically, witness endorsed all Mr Morgan had said, though he did not agree with the geological estimates. The Commission then adjourned till to-morrow.