WEST COAST NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3418, 19 September 1919, Page 28

WEST COAST NEWS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) September 10. The commercial prospects of the West Coast are decidedly improving. The stagnation produced by war conditions was perhaps greater hero than in most places, but there is now a distinct revival in business circles. _ The close of the maritime strike in Australia has released shipping, which is enabling the sawmills to get rid of- an accumulation of timber for tho Australian market. It is a long time since the port of Greymouth has presented so animated an appearance as during tiie past week. Two steamers leave, timber laden, this week for Sydney, while others are loading. Estato agents, again, announce unusual activity in tho sale of house and farm properties. It is almost impossible to secure a rented house in Greymouth, while tenants are being turned out of houses which have changed ownership. Dairy farms are being frequently bought. Canterbury buyers are securing properties on this side the range. One of the southern dairy companies whose annual meeting has just been held reports a most successful year's operations. Though tho coal mines are hewing less than normal at present, it is not because the demand is less, and there are signs generally throughout the district of a revival in this industry. Several . important developments are also, being made in new gold-mining ventures, while companies already in operation report a steady and payable recovery of gold. Technical School. —Greymouth has long felt, the need of an adequate building for a. Technical College. Classes have been held, but there has been no building set apart for the purpose, and the students have had no recreation ground except the street!/. Some time ago a visit was paid to Greymouth by Mr Valentine, and through his advocacy publio interest in the subject was revived. Both Hokitika and Westport were prepared to give a section of land for a buildir"', but it was naturally felt that Greymouth, being the largest town and most centrally situated, was the proper place for the school. After some difference of opinion had been expressed, and some risk of losing the opportunity had been run, a public meeting finally and unanimously decided to bring negotiations to a head. A fine site of five aores,' situated a mile from the centre of the town has been offered to the Education Department, and been accepted. The sum of £3OOO is already on the estirnatcs_ for the college, and it is expected that in tho near future the building will be erected. The West Coast has already given some- splendid men to the country and the world, and it is hoped that tho new college may afford better opportunities than ever for the development of tho latent powers of our young men and women. Old People's Home.—Another important and necessary institution that is in contemplation is a house for the housing of the indigent aged. There are few places in the Dominion where the proportion of old people of this class is larger than on the West Coast. At Greymouth their housing is most unsatisfactory. They occupy the building that was at one time the public hospital. It is old and comfortless, and has long been felt to be unworthy of the place. Many years ago an area of land some 10 miles out of town was set apart by Government for the purpose of such an institution, but it is too inaccessible to doctors and visitors. The Government has therefore purchased, in lieu of this section, a most admirable site of several acres in the vicinity of the present hospital, and within two miles of the town. It is proposed to erect a. home to cost at least £BOOO. It is expected that £IOOO will be in hand by tho end of this year; £3OOO will then be borrowed, and tho interest made chargeable on tho rates. The Government will then subsidise the amount by pound for pound, and thus the whole sum will be available. It is anticipated _ that the work will be undertaken early in the new year. And it will not be any too soon. Death makesheavy inroads upon th© ranks of the old people every winter. A rapidly-diminishing number of the earliest pioneers of the coast still remains, and tho public feels the duty of making the last days of those hardy veterans as comfortable as possible. A generous and steady response is being made to the appeal for funds. Quite a number of old goldminers from Otago are to be found in this province. At the Westland Hospital at Hokitika there died last week Mr William Griffiths, of Blue Spur, aged 83. There are in Greymouth several old miners from Central Otago, who migrated to the Coast upon the discovery of gold in the early sixties. Coal Shortage.—As in tho other parts of the Dominion, the effects of the "coal shortage are being severely felt on the Coast. There is, of course, no local shortage; but the railway restrictions have imposed serious disability upon the public here. With only tri-weekly rail communication with the outside world even in normal times, the cutting out of one of the weekly trips has emphasised the isolation of the Possibly the public are the more inclined to impatience at the restriction, because, with their own abundance of coal, there is no apparent reason for it. But to mail one's letters on Thursday forenoon, and to know that they will not be delivered in Christchurch, only 150 miles distant, until the following Wednesday, is not conducive to patience. Coal Prospects.—The normal output of coal from Greymouth and Westport is anything from 10,000 to 20,000 tons weekly. In harmony, however, with miners in other parts of tho Dominion, the "go slow" policy has been adopted in most of the Coast collieries, with the result of a serious diminution of the output. In one mine alono last week the decrea e was over 400 tons in three days. Apart from this temporary sla<kening of work there has been of late a remarkable revival of interest in the coal industry. Attention has been called to the vast possibilities of the Inangahua fields, perhaps the most extensive in New Zealand, if sufficient incentive were held out for their development. They lie only some 25 miles from Westport, but the Gorge line from Inangahua Junction must be completed before export in that direction is possible. has been agitation, again, for a reduction of coal freights from Reef ton, which would enable the collieries there to compete on equal terms with those nearer the port of Greymouth. In tho neighbourhood of Brunner, at Dobson, a syndicate has quite recently been formed to develop a field there. This is an ambitious undertaking, which proposes to work the mines on tho co-operative system, giving the miners a representation on the directorate of tho company and a share in the profits. It is expected that 2000 tons a week will be hewn from this mine. Then

once more a survey has been made of what proves to be an extensive field at Charlston, 15 miles south of Wostport, and a company is being formed to develop a seam that has been discovered on private property at Granity, also in the Westport district; and lastly, at Point Elizabeth, a few miles from Greymouth, the General Manager of State Mines has given instructions for the expediting of the survey of the coal area, and the line communicating with Greymouth will soon be completed. More than onethird of the coal from the Dominion is produced on the West Coast, and there is every indication that in a few years the export will bo enormously increased. Competitions Festival.—The event of the past week in Greymouth has been the revival of the Competitions Festival, which had been discontinued during the war. There were over 500 musical and literary entries, besides several dancing items. The judges, Messrs Farquhar Young and Williamson, have given every satisfaction, and the amount of youthful talent displayed by the competitors has been a surprise. The honours have been pretty evenly, divided between the two leading debating clubs—St. Columba (Catholic) and Trinity (Anglican). Personal.—Rev. J. W. Smythe.. of the local Presbyterian Church, has, after a term of three years in Greymouth, accepted a call to_ Tauranga.—Rev. J. W. Bloyce, of a neighbouring country parish, has been appointed to the temporary charge of the Greymouth Anglican Church, pending the appointment of a permanent vicar. Rev. J. A. Rogers, who lias been acting as locum ten&ns since the departure of Archdeacon Yorke, has gone on an extended visit to Sydney.