WEST COAST NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3499, 5 April 1921, Page 22

WEST COAST NEWS.

(Fbom Our Own Correspondent.) GREYMOUTH, March 23. The pumping machinery is installed at the Wallsend Goal Mine, and operations will be commenced in the course of a few days. The present intention is not to pump the mine dry, but to ascertain the rate. of intake as a guide to the class of plant which will be required for permanent use. Mr W. Wilson is superintending the work on behalf of the syndicate, and Mr Hayes, for many years Chief Mining Engineers to the Government, will make the observations and compile a report. He has already some local knowledge of the conditions, having written a report on this mine for the Government at the time it was closed down. There is every prospect of the mine proving one of the most successful in the district. The coal, which is estimated at a million tons, is of first-class bituminous quality, and the railway runs right through the area. It is about 30 years since the mine was first opened, and the only reason for its closing was that its development was premature. With the present demand for coal, and the easy conditions for working, there is no reason why it should not develop immediately into a most prosperous career. -—Buller Gorge.— The extension .of the Buller Gorge railway and the opening up of the vast coal resources of the valley is still being strongly urged upon the Govermnent by the Progress League. It points out that in view of the fact that over 405,000 tons of coal were imported last year, and that over £150,000 is lying practically idle in the uncompleted railway, its completion, rendering accessible an inexhaustible supply of coal, would be a sound financial proposition. The league calls attention further to the need for the conservation of bituminous coal, which the Director of Geological Survey computes will only last 100 years, a.nd which conservation would be largely achieved by the release of large quantities of household and industrial coal which are to be found in the Buller Valley and at Charlston. Parenthetically the league draws attention to the inadequate manning of the existing mines of the district, which could absorb fully 50 per cent, more miners. —Coal Miners’ Houses. — The Minister of Labour has promised the member for Buller that he' will personally investigate the position at Runanga with a view, if necessary, to granting State advances to the miners for house-building. —Harbour and Shipping.—After three years’ disuse the Greymouth Harbour Board’s dredge is about to resume operations in the river. It has recently been overhauled and repaired at a cost of £2OOO. The State of the river will require fully six months’ ware to get it into a satisfactory condition. Shipping is still slack and irregular, and is hampering the work at the sawmills. It is estimated that four million feet of timber are on the skids at the various mills awaiting shipment. —lnangahua Roads.— A number of coal mine owners attended a meeting of the Inangahua County Coun cil this week to discuss the question of the maintenance of the roads, which suffer from the heavy coal traffic. The Mines Department had intimated to the council that unless the mine-owners contributed to the upkeep of the roads the subsidy would be discontinued. The owners present expressed their willingness to subsidise the maintenance on condition that the roads were first put into good order, and that tyre regulations were enforced. The council is awaiting the result of a test case in Greymouh respecting tyre regulations before adopting an amended set of rules. —District Bridges.— There are evidences that the patience of the travelling public at the slow improvement in the means of travel, especially in the southern part of this district, is becoming exhausted. At the last meeting of the district branch of the Automobile Association it was resolved that, in view of the slow progress being made with the Wanganui bridge, the authorities be requested to have a sectional bridge made, or, failing that, a low level bridge. In addition to the difficulty of crossing the giver, the heavy charges now being made for towage and the great increase of traffic make some immediate provision necessary. ■ Timber-stacking Facilities.— After long agitation on the subject, Mr T. E. V. Seddon has now received an assurrancc from the General Manager of Railways that, in addition to the provision made at Hokitika, the Department will grant facilities for the stacking of timber at Kumara Junction. Flans are being prepared, and the work will be put in hand as soon as practicable. The sawmills are required to make arrangements for the iand for the stacking sites. —Visit of Governor-General.— His Excellency the Governor-General is expected to visit this district early in April. He will come by sea and return overland to Christchurch. His itinerary will include Westport. Greymouth, Hokitika, Rceftou, and Blackball. —Old West Coasters.— Two old identities of this district have died during the week in.. Christchurch. Mr R. M. Roberts canio to the Coast in 1865, and engaged in goldmining, and later in storckeeping at Teromakau and Oliva. He had previously spent some years on the Otago goldfields. Mr A. 11. Moreton, an artist, in 1880 accompanied a Government party on an expedition to discover a railway route from Otago to Milford Sound. He lived for 15 years at Milford, and in association with Mr Sutherland, the discoverer of Sutherland Falls, cut a track from Lake To to Lake Ada and Milford Sound. —Town Improvements.— The Memorial Gates in memory of a teacher and ex-scholars of the Greymouth State School who died or were killed during the war are now in course of erection.— The new Technical High School at Grey mouth is making steady, though slow progress. The scarcity of labour and difficulty in securing material are retarding the work. —The town of Hokitika was last week lighted by electricity for a few hours’ trial, the connection between the town powerhouse and the source of supply having just been completed. The test was in every wavsatisfactory. —Greymouth County.— The Greymouth County Council has re oeived advice from the Treasury and Public Works Department of the payment of £I7OO to its account for various road work

and authority from the latter department for the expenditure of £BOO. —Personal.—• Mr 11. C. Harley, who has been in business in Greymouth for over 25 years, was entertained during the week at a public meeting of citizens by the Greymouth Trotting Club, of which he was an enthusiastic member, prior to his departure for Christchurch, where he will in future reside. Both Mr and Mrs Harley have shown themselves very public-spirited citizens, and their departure from the district is deeply regretted.