THE KAKAHU COAL MINES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3387, 5 August 1885, Page 3

THE KAKAHU COAL MINES.

(By Telegraph.) (fBOM OtTE OWN COBBEBPONDENT.) Wellington, August 4. With reference to Kakahu coal, the following is the report of Mr J. J. Binns, Inspector of Mines, on tho subject : — " I have tho honor to inform you that on receipt of your letter of the 2lßt I revisited Kakahu and made an examination of the alleged coal discoveries, which, however, can hardly be so called, as a coal mine in this exact locality was reported in 1881 (see Report on Control and Inspection of Mines 1881). Since that date no mining has been carried on. The special feature to which it was, I believe, desired that attention should bo culled was an outcrop of coal in tho bed of the Kakahu river. At the time of my visit, however, this was covered with water, and it was therefore impossible to obtain any information as to its thickness or dip. Some samples wero procured and these have been sent for analysis. The dip of the measure at this point is fifty degrees, and the sample of coal indicates clearly the proximity of a fault in a pipe clay cutting, distant about 30 chains in a southerly direction. Tho other coal measures consists of beds of clay and sand with hard ferruginous bands, and a dip of 23 degrees. At Kakahu Bush there is an old working, in what appears to be a carbonaceous shale. As, however, there is not only a drive straight in, but a considerable lateral excavation, the material from which has evidently been taken away, I am obliged to believe this has been ÜBed, as I was informed, as a fuel for generating Bteam in a saw mill. The dip at this point is 21 degrees. Still further to the north, on Mr Hesketh's ground, a thin seam of 2 feet of faulty coal dips at 68 degrees to the north. I have recommended that prospecting should be carried on, not at first by boring or sinking, but by surface exploration and machinery. When anything doCnite is exposed, it will bo possible to give an opinion as to whether more expensive works are desirable."