THE COAL MINE AT PAKAWAU.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 770, 10 March 1865, Page 4

THE COAL MINE AT PAKAWAU.

We are pleased to learn that the progress of the Provisional Committee appointed to raise funds for the purpose of sinking the shaft, and bringing up a certain quantity of coal from the mine at Pakawau, has been large and successful. The sum required for the purpose was estimated at from £800 to £900, and already £800 has been subscribed and £100 more is promised. This places the Committee in the position of being able at once to proceed with the sinking of the shaft down to the si-foot seam; and this will be done immediately. Tenders for the work are advertised for, and as soon as these are received and accepted, the sinking will begin. If the expectations raised by the excellent specimens of coal produced, by the reported " lie " of the strata, by the thickness of the large seam and the prospect of one still larger underlying the bed of sandstone on which the s^-foot seam is placed, by the proximity of Pakawau to the city of Nelson, only 60 miles by water, which is nearly always placid and calm, and the ease with which' the mine can be reached, —if these expectations be realised, then will Nelson receive a lasting benefit from the working of her own coal, and will be able to command a market in New Zealand, because she can undersell the coal of the Australian mines. A few weeks will see the shaft sunk, and a little longer will witness the production at the pit's mouth, of several hundred tons of coal, by which time the commercial value of the seam will be fairly tested, and its extent approximately ascertained.