OUR COAL MINES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 866, 5 October 1888, Page 15

OUR COAL MINES.

TO THE EDITOR OV THE NEW ZEALAND MAIL. Sir, —I have just returned from a visit to.the West Cbast,' and while there 1 had the pleasure of witnessing the activity at the coal mines of Greymouth and Westport, and noticed that, they were fully employed owing to the extra demand occasioned by'the Newcastle strike; What I wish to call special attention to is the pleasing faipt that those mines are able to cope with the present emergency by increasing their output folly fj.Q P er cant in a short notice, ancf if the demand continues, I have been assured by the respective managers it could be easily doubled. I say the pleasing fact, for hitherto I have seen it repeatedly asserted that New Zealand was unable yet to supply its own needs with coal. A few figures which I am quoting will prove the fallacy of that statement. For the past seven years New Zealand has met' its own requirements,’ excepting about 420,Q4Q tons yearly imported from Newcastle. i>uring tftat peripd the out r put on the West Coast was—Greymouth, yearly, 454,0Q0 tons ; Westport, ditto, 448,00.0 tons. Now for the past four weeks the putput amounts to—Qreymouth 550 Q, fand Westport 450 Q tons weekly average 5 being at the rale of 275,QQ0 and 225,004 tons respectively total, 50.9,000 tpns, and fully 20.Q,Q90 tons in excels of forpaer demands, and as the 420,009 tons that are drawn from Newcastle. What with the' present working mines on the West Coast, doing at the rate of half p million tons yearly, and capable of increasing to 1,000,000 tons of superior quality for all purposes, and the projected development of other mines and also other coalfields spread all over the Colony, having an aggregate output of another 500,000 tons, surely 1 am right in asserting that wo are now independent of all foreign importation of coal, and were our requirements to increase beyond the most sanguine expectations that independence will continue. I may also add that Greymouth turns out also splendid coke and fire bricks equal to any demands within this Colony and to spare, and of a quality equal to any 1 ever witnessed in the Old Country. I beg to enclose my card and to subscribe myself Nationalist.