C-3b

8

nearly fills it up to the roof. A new airway is to be made at an early date; just now the air is good. 4. Homebush Mine. —(26/6/94): Examined all the working-places, and found them in good order. I pointed out to the manager two or three places in the levels where I thought some timber was required, or the roof brushed down. I also pointed out a spot in the horse road where shoring from side to side was necessary to make it safe. I measured the intake of air, and found there was more than is required by the Act. 5. Whitecliff's Mine. —(27/6/94) : The new pit is a little higher up the valley where the diptunnel to the coal has been completed since my previous visit. The coal is 26 yards down from the pit-mouth, and dips 14in. in the yard. The coal—7ft. thick—was followed down 50 yards, where it became very much broken up, and the crevices filled with dark clay and mud. Levels were opened to the right and left much higher up the dip, where the coal is more solid and cleaner. The level on the right-hand or south side is driven 6 or 7 chains, where there is very good coal in places, but there are blocks lying up and down with the dip , that are very much cracked and dirty. Some of these blocks are left behind, as the coal is hardly saleable, even when washed. The level to the north has been driven 6 chains to test the value of the coal in that direction, and it is found to be nearly all small and dirty, with a bad roof. There is a 3ft. seam of coal 4ft. overhead, and at a depth of about 25ft. underfoot there is another seam of 4ft. thick, which is said to be the best coal in the leasehold. This lower seam has a soft sand roof. Mr. Leeming thinks the fossilrock is likely to be met with at 25 yards below where he stopped sinking on the seam. An Bft. waterwheel at the pit-mouth does the pumping easily, and the head-race is only a mile in length, with enough water to do the work all the year through. All the coal is washed to a certain extent in the boxes, which are placed for a few minutes under a splash in front of the water-wheel. In this simple way the bulk of the clay is removed. I have asked Mr. Leeming to brush down the roof at the junctions of dip and levels, and to put in much higher timber, in order to give the men plenty of room overhead when hitching the boxes to the winding-rope. The working-places are in fair order, and the air is good. 9. Lake Coleridge Mine. —(ls/1/95) : A few tons of coal have been hewn out since my previous visit and stacked at the pit-mouth ready for carting away to the station. Examined the workingplaces and found them in a safe condition. The proposed prospecting-tunnel has not yet been started. 10. Mount Somars. —(l2/6/94): I am pleased to state that this mine has changed hands since the early half of last year. A. G. Harris sold out to G. Park, who professes to be most anxious to comply with the Act, and to do all as advised for the safety of the men and the mine. H. Livick (mine-manager) has promised me not in any way to interfere with the old pillars, which have heretofore been robbed from time to time till they are dangerously small quite handy to the present workings. Some of the weakest parts have been retimbered quite lately, as also along the main roadway. The present working-places are in good order. 11. Albury Mine. —(l 2/7/94): I found the owner, Mr. Eutherford, at the pit, and learned from him that since my previous visit a shaft had been sunk in the coal from the floor of the first level to a depth of 16ft., or 40ft. level, and a second level tunnel driven in the coal to the eastward about 2 chains or more, taking out about Bft. of coal near the centre of the seam —the side-walls were not touched in that distance. The top level was also driven to the eastward a distance of 4 chains, where an upcast shaft was excavated from below, through 43ft. of coal and 12ft. of surface-clay. The thickness of seam where tested is said to be 21ft. At the time of my first visit the drainage was being pumped by hand. Since then a water-race, three-quarters of a mile in length, has been cut to the pit from a small creek close by, and a water-wheel about sft. in diameter has been erected close to the pit to do the pumping, which work it does very easily. The drainage, though not great, is supposed to come from the small creek where it crosses the seam close by. With care in working the mine I think the most of the present drainage could be confined to the level now pumped from. I did not find any coal-hewers working in the mine, and was told that very little had been done since my last visit. There is, however, some prospect of a fresh start being made shortly. 13. Studholme Mine, Waimate. —(l4/7/94) : I called on Mr. Cameron (manager of the Studholme Estate), and learned from him that there was no one at the mine, and that no coal-hewing had been done for some months past. A quantity of coal previously hewn down and left in the pit has been carted to and is being used at the homestead. I did not think it necessary to visit the mine. 14. McPherson's Mine, Waimate Forks. —Having received a note from Mr. D. McPherson that there was no coal-hewing going on at his pit, nor had there been for some months past, I did not think it necessary to visit it. Noeth Otago. 15. Wade's Awakino Mine. —(4/6/94): The coal—a vertical seam—is reached by an adit, 3-J chains in length, driven from the foot of the terrace, on the west side of the Awakino Stream. The seam is being followed northward on two levels, the lower one of which is now driven to a distance of about 5-J chains. The seam at the end of the present workings is not so thick or so good in quality as it was at the end of the adit. It has, in the 5-J- chains, thinned from 20ft. to 13ft., and is very uneven in the walls on both sides. Lumps of stone are now frequently found through the coal. I found fault with the condition of the timber in one particular place in the adit, and brought Mr. Scott, the manager, from his working-place to see it. I did not think the adit safe, as several of the caps were broken, and some of the legs were canted, so much as to be dangerous. It was evident from measurements of adit taken by me that it was gradually closing in at the sides, and being crushed down by the broken ground overhead where a small seam of coal had been worked some time ago. I requested Mr. Scott to at once retimber the part pointed