TARATU COAL AND RAILWAY COMPANY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19066, 11 January 1924, Page 13

TARATU COAL AND RAILWAY COMPANY.

PERSEVERANCE BRINGS SUCCESS. The record of the Taratu C-oa] and Railway Company makes interesting reading, and shows how success can be achieved by perseverance on the part of men who have energy and confidence in the quality of their product to meet the requirements of consumers. The Taratu coal field is situated about 2i miles _ over the hill from Kaitangata, with which place it is conneted by a good road. The possibilities of this areafrom a coal-producing point of view were realised a great many years ago, when the prospectus of a company, to be known as the Tiraki toto Coal Company, was issued. Their effort to float a company at that time was not attended with success. About 22 years ago Mr Garden Watson, who will be remembered by many people as an energetic and enterprising business man in Dunedin, decided to make an effort to develop the property. He succeeded in floating a company with a of £40,000, and the management of it was placed in his hands. This company, however, met with difficulties which it was unable to surmount, and the property fell into the hands of the debenture holders about three years later. Sufficient had been done by tfiis time to show that under favourable conditions the coal measures in the property could be developed with advantage, and a little later a new company was formed with a capital of £21;000, the principal shareholders being Messrs C. Speight, R. Hudson, A. Mowat. and A- James. This company carried on operations until 1911, when Mr G. R. Cheeseman, who had been business manager since the formation of the company and Mr P. R. Sargood purchased the property. Since then the mine has been systematically developed, and no expense has been spared in equipping it with the latest appliances for carrying on operations to the test advantage, with the result that steady progress has been made and to-day there is a large output of coal of good quality which finds a ready market over a wide area.

There are two mines on the property, one of which is worked by means of a abaft, and the other by a drive. The seams of coal are extensive, ranging from 12ft to 40ft in thickness, and there is every prospect that the company has a long life ahead of it. The pumping plant and winding gear are driven by electricity. The mine is connected with the Government railway system at Lovell’s Flat by a line eight miles in lengh. Occasionally, during heavy floods, the line has suffered severely as the result of being submerged, but the proprietors have fa'ced all the attendant difficulties cheerfully, and have restored conditions to normal without delay.