OUR MINERALS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 50, 13 October 1911, Page 7

OUR MINERALS.

THE COALFIELDS OF TARANAKI. It is interesting to note, in view of the recent discussion in the House on the importation of coal, that various geologists have irom time to time visited the hinterland of this province with a view to examining and reporting on the various mineral deposits there. From what one can gather from the information available (says the “Paten Press”), there is at present lying at our doors one 1 of thp largest coalfields in the Dominion only waiting for the roads and railway to enable it to be opened up for the use of man. It is, at the same time, somewhat disconcerting, our contemporary continues, to read in the columns of the Stratford “Post“ that it will probably ho twelve or eighteen months before the trains run into Whangamomona, to say nothing of their reaching the Tangarakau coalbearing region. The first sod of this line was turned by the Hon. W. HallJones as far hack as March 28th, 1901, over ten and a half years ago, and there is no valid reason why it should not. have reached the coalboaring district beyond Whattgamomona long since. When once this region is opened up it is hard to say what valuable- minerals may not he discovered and what new industries started. There is something more dan a possibility of a large influx of .English capital in the near future to assist in developing other resources if the district. Should the oil company at present being formed in contortion. with the New Plymouth oil hold meet with the success that now seems assured, there is no doubt a •urge amount of capital will ho utilised to devplop the whole of the hinterland of Taranaki. That it is worth developing is shown by the report of Mr I. C. Crawford, F.G.S., at one time provincial geologist of Wellington, who devoted a large nmonnt of time to the exploration of the Taranaki bad: country. In one of his reports Mr Crawford statps that he found coal outcrops at the Tangarakau River at the Ohara junction, and ; above the junction of the Ongaruhe,, and in his remarks on the coal measures of the Upper Wanganui, he says: “An inspection of lliQ map - will show that these three points lie in a straight lino, on a, strike of About -N.N.E. I consider that there: is little doubt that this formation extends throughout to the westward to the coal seams of Mokau and,.’the West Coast. It may be faulted' and in places beyond reach, but the probabilities, are of its extension throughout this district.” It is a well-known fact that for some time past surveyors and settlors in the Wliangamornona County have boon burning coal which they have obtained from outcrops at various points along the road. Mr P. G. Morgan, M.A., of the Geological Survey Department, speaking quite recently gave It as his opinion that there was undoubtedly a very large area of possible coalbearing country in the Taranaki district. This being the case there is no doubt it would he greatly to the interests of the country and of this district in particular if an exhaustive geological survey of the whole of the hinterland of Taranaki were to he made without delay, so that when the railway taps this’ country arrangements could be made for slight deviations or small branch lines in order to assist in the development of that portion of Taranaki in the shortest possible time. ,