The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 322, 12 August 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1868.

A eepobt has been, published in the Gazette, furnished by Mr Wrigg, on the Mount Rochfort Coal Fields, from, which we extract the following items, but for the present refrain from further comment. He says that " the south east slope of the "valley known as Coalbrook Dale, " may be said to be almost one continu- " ous seam of superior coal of various " thickness ranging from three to nine " feet." On the lower part of the Dale coal seams are visible in various places on both sides of the valley, before its junction with the Waimansjaroa Gorge. From these facts Mr Wrigg' is of opinion that a line of railway cut along the south east slope of Coalbrook Dale would lay bare a seam of coal almost from the top to the bottom of the valley. The thickness of the seams in . Waimangaroa Gorge far exceeds those of Coalbrook Dale, but they are exposed on the face of a perpendicular cliff which descends from the general platform in a distance of fifteen chti is, no less than nine hundred feet. Mr Wrigg then proposes working the Coalbrook Dale coal only for the present, and constructing a line of railway worked by locomotives. He abandons the line proposed by Mr Burnett, and suggests one seven miles longer, viz., nineteen and three quarter miles in length, the average"cost per mile, of which he estimates at .£5031, or the total probable cost, £133,326. The roll i ng plant m hichhe i n eluded in the above, will he says, be sufficient to enable 144,000 tons of coal to be delivered in Westport per annum. The cost of approaching the coal in AVaimangaroa Gorge, he considers too great for attempting at present, but considers that when ouce the saddle of the Coalbrook Dale Valley is reached, the railway system can easily be extended to Mokihiuui, Buller Valley, and in fact very readily in any direction. As the Mount Rochfort and Grey coal goldfields are not v to be given to the proposed Nelson and Cobden line of railway, Mr Wrigg is of opinion that there is no hope of its being constructed, an opinion which we fully endorse.