[From the Nelson Examiner, July 4.] COAL.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 63, 6 August 1860, Page 4

[From the Nelson Examiner, July 4.] COAL.

In attempting a notice of the coal mines of our province, we are met in the teeth by many practical difficulties . Unlike our mines of chrome and gold, they have not yet been proved to any great extent by actual workings, and we can do no more therefore than state the facts, from the consideration of which we venture to predict their future productiveness and value. Firstly, then, in the neighbourhood of the town we have a tei*tiary or brown coal, found upon Mr. Jenkins's property, andnow worked by that gentleman. The demand for this coal is far beyond the supply, for although of comparatively little value for manufacturing purposes, it is found by consumers to be superior to wood for ordinary domestic use.

The extraordinary disturbances apparent in the stratification in the immediate vicinity of Mr. Jenkins's mine, induced Dr. Hochstetter " to think it doubtful whether a mine in that particular place could be successfully worked;" but as the formation extends for several miles along the base of the hills towards the Wairoa river, he " thought it not improbable that in the same line of stratification a place might be found, where, at a greater depth, the coal seams might lie in their natural position, and workings be carried on with success." In the face, however, of what is already known of the Pakawau coal, and of the facts which have lately come to light in regard to the coal measures in the valley of the Grey, it may be considered very doubtful whether it would pay to open mines of inferior coal, the cost of producing which would at all events not be less, and in all probability would be greater, than that of producing the superior article ; nevertheless, pending a supply of the latter, we trust that Mr. Jenkins's spirited undertaking will flourish, and that his exertions will be productive of benefit to himself, as they have already proved to be of advantage to the public. We come next to the coal fields of Massacre Bay, containing both tertiary and secondary coals. The tertiary coals are found of great extent at Motupipi and in the valley of the Takaka, and are said by Dr. Hochstetter to be of the same geological age as those found at Drury, near Auckland. At Motupipi these coals were, until lately, worked on a large scale, but the undertaking was abandoned by the proprietors as " a losing concern." It is not our province to inquire into the causes of the alleged failure, but we cannot help thinking that the limited consumption of the coal was mainly due to the high price demanded for it in Nelson, a price which was found by experience to be far beyond its relative value as fuel. It would be impossible to find mines of coal more advantageously situated for working. Cropping out in a block of hills bounding a small natural haven, hundreds of thousands of tons can be obtained, level free ; whilst at the very mouth of the mine adit, vessels can lie for transporting the produce to Nelson. The works are described as having been " commenced with regularity and judgment," and are such that the coal can be produced in unlimited quantity ; and there is no doubt that if the price charged bore any reasonable proportion to its value for consumption, the demandfor thiscoalwould havebeen very large. Next in order comes the Pakawau coal, which, until the discovery of the Grey coalfields, was undoubtedly the best coal known in the colony. Dr. Hochstetter described it as " a dense, heavy, black coal, of a laminated structure, breaking in large pieces which do not crumble, yielding a large amount of flame and heat without sulphureous or other disagreeable smell, and burning away to a clean white ash ;" and moreover he was of opinion " that this coal must contain at least 70 per cent, of carbon, and that it would be found a very excellent coal for steam purposes." In allusion to the seam already worked upon (which only contained two feet of pure coal), he also said, " that in a coal-field of such extent, it might with confidence be assumed that seams of much greater thickness existed, and the way to ascertain their existence was to make borings." The Pakawau coal-field was first observed by Mr. Travers during an excursion to Massacre Bay, some nine or ten years ago, and he was so satisfied of the value of the coal that he at once brought it under the notice of Sir George Grey. The land was at that time in the hands of the natives, but Sir George, recognising the importance of Mr. Travers's discovery, gave immediate instructions to purchase it. Shortly after the land had been purchased, a company was organized by Mr. Travers to work the mines, and his views then were, " that the amount raised by the sale of the shares in Nelson should be expended in carrying out a series of borings over an area of from four to five hundred acres, and that if the result obtained by the borings should prove satisfactory, endeavours should be made to obtain capital in England to work the mines on a large scale." The directors of the Company, however, differed from these views, and commenced operations on a small scale. The result was a complete failure, and so the matter lay until very lately. "We are now informed that the Government have granted a lease of two square miles of this coal field (comprising the land formerly held by the above mentioned company) to some gentlemen here, who are about to try their luck with the black diamond. "We heartily wish them success ; but we cannot help fearing that, like every attempt to carry out a large concern with insufficient capital, their enterprise is doomed to failure. "We hope, however, Government will not allow so valuable a property again to remain uselessly tied up for an indefinite period, but that it will carry out the spirit as well as the letter of the mining regulations, and require the lessees to surrender their lease unless they work the mines efficiently. These mines, likes those at Motupipi, present great facilities for working. Situated in a block of hilly ground, the coal crops out in various directions in the ravines and gullies, and there is little doubt that good workable seams will be found considerably above the water level. The produce can be shipped either from the township of Seaford (within a mile of the mines), where barges or other vessels drawing from four to six feet of water can be employed, or from Collingwood, only six miles distant on a dead level, a railway to which place would enable the coals to be shipped in vessels of two hundred tons burden. It has been said, however, by high authority, that these mines can only be successfully opened and worked with a capital of from £30,000 to £40,000; and we hold it to be absolutely useless to attempt to raise such a capital in the colony itself. Let it, however, be demonstrated in England that the mines are valuable mines, and we have no doubt, looking to the enormous demand for coal which is now springing up in this and the neighbouring colonies, that the enterprise would be taken up there with any amount of capital necessary for the purpose.

Last in our list are the coal measures of the Grey, noticed as follows in our number of the 27th ultimo :— Mr. Haast speaks in the highest terras of the mineral wealth of the district. A careful examination of the Grey coal-field has led him to believe that it belongs to the great oolite system. North of the Grey, for several miles, he found the overlying rocks to consist of chalk, limestone, and calcareous marls, belonging to the cretaceous period, and containing charasteristic fossils, of which he obtained some good specimens. Up the river, for some distance, the rocks have been much denuded, and are overlaid by a thick bed of alluvium, which precluded any examination of them. Then follow (on the course of the river) reddish yellow sandstone, with nodules of clay ironstone, but unfortunately no fossils. To these succeed a valuable freestone (fit for grindstones) of considerable thickness, below which are seams of coal alternating with sandstone. The coal seams vary in thickness, the upper seams being from four to sixteen inches only ; but in the bed of a stream flowing into the Grey, and at a short, distance from that river, he found one seam of pure coal, which, so far as it had been exposed by natural causes, was twelve feet six inches thick ; whilst at a short distance above it another seam of the same coal, six feet in thickness, cropped out. Mr. Haast is of opinion that the extent of the coal-field, stretching north and south of the Grey, is very considerable ; and he states that it offers unusual facilities for working. "We can merely add to the above notice, that in the opinion of Mr. Haast the mines offer great facilities for working. They are above the water level, are situated at but a short distance from the harbour, to which a railway could be laid at a moderate expense, and the harbour itself is availabe for vessels of considerable tonnage. We have thus endeavoured to give a plain account of our coal fields ; and we feel that the facts above stated justify us in predicting that not only will they materially assist in placing Nelson at the head of the provinces of New Zealand, in the production of valuable minerals, but that they are destined to become to this colony at large what the coalfields of "Britain now are to her, " amongst the most important props of her commerce and of her manufacturing and mechanical superiority."