COAL PROSPECTING AT KAWARAWA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7584, 13 March 1886, Page 5

COAL PROSPECTING AT KAWARAWA.

In continuation of my last report on the progress of the prospecting party under Mr. Moore, at Pukaru, on the Kawakawa river, have now to forward the memo, furnished to Mr. J. D. Triphook, C.E., from Mr. Skey's analysis, and also a letter received by him from Dr. Hector, Wellington, dated 16 th February, 1886. As to the seams worked through at Pukaru, they alternate with fire-olay up to the present. The working of the lignite has now reached to a thickness of seven feet, not yet bottomed. These explorations are of the greatest importance in settling the question of the extension of the coal measures in the Bay of Islands, not only in the neighbourhood, but also where similar conditions appear, that is to say, where the coal measures are supposed to lie immediately below the scoria or lava. In neither of these cases can the depth to the coal seams be less than one hundred feet, or probably more than three hundred feet, judging from the positions of the older or bed rock in each locality. Dr. Hector states: "I enclose results of the analysis of the last specimens you sent. The average of the cretaceous brown coal, such for instance as the Waikato coal, and as the anhydrous condition of the Kawakawa coal is the exception, and the hydrous state like your samples is the usual form of the coal, there is no reason for supposing them to be, of different ages to the Kawakawa mine seam merely on account of chemical composition. I must defer the discussion of the matter until I have a chance of visiting the locality, or of sending an assistant. Meanwhile 1 have to thank you for the great trouble you have taken in sending me the minutelydetailed information, which I have studied with great interest.—l am, &c,, James Hectoe. J. D. Triphook, Eat}-, Bay of Islands." Messrs. Masefield and Co.'s prospecting party on the scoria fiat, Kawakawa, show a a steady advance in the boring to date. The engineer, Mr. McGlynn, states that he has got down 117 feet, and has gone through green sandstone with. coal intermix-ed* which he considers a sure indication of the near approach to the seam. 1 will visit the works daily, and forward a report as soon as the seam of coal is reached, which cannot be very far off now, as the boring goes on from four feet to six feet per day. The Bay of Islands Co.'s mine is still flooded, but good progress is made in reducing the water, and in a few days the mine should be once more being worked.— [Our Kawakawa Correspondent, March 10.