C—Bb

12

Benhar seam. The pit is opened in the face of a small hill by a long narrow cutting to the level of the floor of the seam where the open face has exposed from twelve to fifteen feet of clean coal. When a good depth of face was obtained mining was then started. The main heading is going eastward and is driven about 35ft. Two bords are driven north, one 27ft. and the other 10ft., leaving a pillar of 15ft. between. The height of coal hewn out is from Bft. to 10ft. The coal is conveyed by a level tram a few chains to the base of a hill, and then hauled up the hill by a horse to a convenient place to load drays. 36. Kaitangata Mine, Kaitangata. —(l2/6/95): The current of air passing through the mine was measured, and proved to be 32,170 cubic feet per minute. The number of men employed in the mine at the time was 123. Examined all the working-places in the southern district, where some pillars are being split and others removed. This work is being carefully and safely done, notwithstanding that 33ft. of clean coal is being taken out, with comparatively little loss. The floor of the old bords in this district is now tight up to the roof, having risen probably from Bft. to 10ft. since the coal was hewn out. So completely are these places filled up that, were it not for the top of the old timber to be seen in places, it might be difficult to convince a stranger to the work that any coal had been previously removed from these places. This part of the mine is a little warm, in consequence of some of the small coal and a quantity of roof-conglomerate getting mixed behind the workmen. When the roof falls it breaks up and mixes with the dross left behind ; it very soon generates heat, and eventually fire. To cope with these contingencies, gas-pipes conveying water at a high pressure are laid through the old workings, and are always ready in case of emergency. There are taps at convenient places, and the water is sprayed over the dross and debris from time time as may be necessary to keep down the heat and dust, till that part of the mine is closed and walled off. From the bottom of the main incline-plane, and below that level, there is a considerable amount of work going on to the north, in the direction of the Castle Hill Mine. The bords and air-headings are constantly and steadily advancing in that direction in a body of splendid coal 25ft. thick. There is, in places, a clay band coming in and cutting out again where two seams of coal join. The coal hewn at a convenient distance below the level of the incline-plane is drawn up to that level by a steam crab-winch, and then sent by the engine-plane to the surface. The coal hewn below the crab-winch haulage is lowered by a powerful brake to the level of the main shaft—7ooft. level—and hoisted therefrom to the platform. The long tunnel in the coal going north in the 700 ft. level is not being extended at present, but is being dressed up and retimbered in places. To the south in the same level the mine is not being worked at present, there being plenty of room for the men in other parts of the mine. Everything appears to be in good order. 37. Castle Hill Mine, Kaitangata. —(l3/6/95): The workings to the north of the incline are being extended to test the value of the seam in that direction. The main level, south to the upcast shaft, a distance of about 1,260 ft., is being extended still further to the south and south-east, where there are a number of men hewing good clean coal. The bords are well ventilated by headings at short intervals. The thickness of coal removed is from 7ft. to Bft. All soft places in the roof—and there are many —liable to flake, and come down without warning, are timbered at once. I tried the most likely places for gas, but did not find any. At the bottom of the upcast shaft, which is 543 ft. deep, is built in brick a double-arched furnace, probably the best and largest piece of work of its kind in New Zealand. It is built in the floor of the coal-seam, has an arched roof, and an inverted arched floor 3ft. thick. The brick-work under the fire-bars is constructed so as to be always several inches deep with water, into which the ashes fall and are immediately quenched. The fire can be drawn and extinguished in the ash-pit in a few minutes when necessary, and the upcast shaft is in a short space of time available as an escape shaft, where are suspended wire-rope guides and a cage, all ready in position, capable of hoisting four men at a time. The winding-engine and winding-plant used while the enlargement of shaft and brick-lining was being done, is kept in good order and ready for any emergency. This engine and plant is examined and worked for a short time once a month, in order to see that all its parts are in good working order. The furnace has two arched passages on both sides to prevent the possibility of firing the coal. It is well designed, and most substantially built. There are, including one brick thick in the construction of the 543 ft. of shaft, which is 10ft. in diameter, a total of no less than four hundred thousand bricks in the work. The quantity of air passing through the mine on the day of my visit was 62,914 cubic feet per minute. 38. Lakeside Mine, Kaitangata. —(19/12/95): This mine is situated a mile or more in a straight line to the east of the Castle Hill Company's shaft. There is a large body of coal exposed in the face of the hill, at the adit-mouth, but in the working-places only a short distance into the hill Bft. of coal is being hewn out. The adit is heading southward, and the bords are heading to the east, in which direction the floor rises slightly. At present, on this side only is there any coal being hewn. There are only two men employed as yet. Bising immediately from the pit-mouth is a considerable hill, over which the coal has to be taken to get market. On the top of this hill is placed a portable engine, which hauls the boxes on a tram-line up the east side from the mouth of the pit, and lowers them down on the west side to a continuation of the tram-line of an easy downgradient, about a mile and a half long, to the main dray-road on the lake side. The output of coal is very small. 39. Langridge Mine, Kaitangata. —(l4/6/95) : This is a new mine on the south side of the Kaitangata a mile or more, and is facing the river. The coal is being followed into the hill at a considerable elevation above the river. Very little work was done at the time of my visit. 40. Wangaroa Mine, Kaitangata. —(18/6/95) : Went into the mine with Mr. Smith, and examined all the working-places. There is a considerable body of coal left overhead for a roof, which I find in splendid order; no part of it is broken. Seven feet only of coal is taken out, and the working places are narorw. 41. Lismahagow Mine, Kaitangata. —(lß/6/95) : Mr. Sewell has discontinued working in his old pit, and has taken up fresh ground near Smith's pit in the same locality, to which place he is