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ventilation in the Kimihia Mine is the most seriously deficient, and the methods heretofore adopted have been unsatisfactory, and must be altered. General observations : There were originally four companies at work at Huntly. The Taupiri Extended was the principal company, and opened their mine about twenty-five years ago. Then came the Taupiri Reserve Company ; then the Waikato Coal Company. The Taupiri Extended leased their first mine from Mr. Ralph. This lease ran out ten years ago, and they then opened the present mine on 150 acres of freehold land adjoining the old mine. Shortly after that Messrs. Ralph and Biss sank a shaft near the river and opened the present mine. There was not sufficient trade for four mines, and the Taupiri Extended and Taupiri Reserve Companies leased Ralph s mine at £800 a year and kept it closed. The four companies have now been combined into one company. The Extended Mine and Waikato Mine are doing very little, and the chief work is being done in the Kimihia and Ralph Mines. SOUTH ISLAND—WEST COAST. Westport Coal Companies' Mines. The importance and magnitude of these mines require some more detailed observations than usual. The statement taken by us from Mr. Joachim, general manager of the company, is interesting and valuable. He says the company was incorporated in 1882 with a nominal capital of £400,000 in 80,000 shares of £5 each, of which 69,000 have been issued, leaving 10,000 unallotted. £3 10s. per share has been called up and paid, but 10s. a share has been written off for losses, leaving £3 a share equal to £207,000. Debentures have been issued for £65,000, and there are other liabilities equal to £40,000. The whole of this capital and the money from debentures has been expended in developing the mines. The company have paid away the following amounts :—Wages : £960,690; royalty, railway haulage, rates and taxes, £510,992 ; freights to local carriers, £708,413 ; stores, £86,397 ; new works and plant, £154,747 ; repairs and sundries, £23,214; total, £2,444,453. The leases held by the company comprise 5,430 acres on the Buller Coal Reserve. The output from 1883 up to the present has been :—IBB3, 34,997 tons; 1884, 74,319 tons ; 1885, 47,748 tons; 1886, 73,933 tons ; 1887, 115,940 tons; 1888,130,218 tons; 1889, 163,914 tons ; 1890, 160,240 tons ; 1891, 192,604 tons; 1892, 198,190 tons ; 1893, 223,511 tons ; 1894, 215,770 tons; 1895,183,744 tons; 1896,211,472 tons; 1897,243,617 tons; 1898, 279,541 tons; 1899, 327,015 tons; 1900, 368,334 tons : making a total output of 3,245,107 tons. From 1882 to 1887 no dividend was paid, but since then the dividend account stands as under : —1887, 2| per cent.; 1888, 5 per cent.; 1889, 6 per cent.; 1890, nil; 1891, 1\ per cent.; 1892, 7$ per cent.; 1893, 7|- per cent.; 1894, 6 per cent.; 1895, 6 per cent.; 1896, 6 per cent.; 1897, 6J per cent. ; 1898, 7 per cent. ; 1899, 1\ per cent.; 1900, 8 per cent. The dividends paid equal 4J per cent, on the capital from commencement of company in 1882. The company's mines may be divided into two main divisions—viz., the Denniston Mines and Millerton or Granity Creek Mines. The Denniston Mines, known also as the Coalbrookdale and Ironbridge Mines, are situated on the Denniston Plateau, about fourteen miles north-west of Westport, between the headwaters of the Wareatea and Waimangaroa Rivers, at an elevation of about 1,800 ft. above sea-level, and contain 2,480 acres. The coal has to be lowered down two inclines, covering a distance of one mile, with a drop of 1,700 ft. The upper incline is 33 chains in length, with a vertical fall of 830 ft. on a grade of lin 1-3. The lower incline is 50 chains in length, with a fall of 864 ft. in that distance, the maximum grade being lin 2-2. The inclines are worked by direct rope haulage, and the descending weight is utilised to draw up the empty return wagon. The wagons or trucks are the ordinary Government railway-trucks, holding about 7 tons each, and one truck is lowered and one hauled up at each operation of the rope. The gross weight of the load, truck included, is about 11 tons. A 4 in. steel-wire rope is used, special hydraulic brakes are provided, and accidents are few ; but the loss of a truck costs the company £116, that being the price charged by the Railway for each truck lost, and a slip or break-away generally involves the destruction of the truck. About fifteen trucks, or 105 tons, an hour is the average speed of lowering. The company own a private line, from the foot of the incline to the Government Railway at Wellington Mine Station, Waimangaroa, a distance of about a mile and a quarter. The Railway Department take charge of the trucks at the foot of the incline, and have an arrangement with the company for adjusting the haulage over the company's line. The trucks are filled at the bins at the top of the incline at Denniston, and before the coal arrives at the bins it has to be brought in mine-tubs by means of an endless rope, distances (according to the working-place it comes from) varying from two to four miles. The Granity Creek or Millerton lease is situated about ten miles north-east from the Coalbrookdale workings, and contains 2,950 acres. It lies at an elevation of 1,500 ft. above the sea and the railway which runs along the beach. At this mine, instead of railway-trucks being taken up the hill, the coal is lowered in the mine-tubs by means of an endless rope, with very powerful hydraulic-brake machinery, and is the most complete and expensive plant of the kind in the colony. The lower incline is 50 chains long, with a grade of 1 in 3-75, and carries, when fully loaded, fifty full tubs and fifty empty ones, on alternate sides. The tubs hold Yl\ cwt. of coal each, and travel two and a half to three miles per hour, and can thus put out 1,600 tons in eight hours' work. The upper incline is 51 chains long, and extends 28 chains into the mine, making a total length of 79 chains, with an average grade of 1 in 15, and can work up to seventy-nine tubs on each side. At the foot of the incline there is a very effective screening apparatus, capable of turning out, it is said, 400 tons of screened coal in eight hours. Storage-bins for 1,500 tons, and all other appliances for placing the coal on the railway-trucks are also provided. Additional bins were in course of erection at the time of our visit in January last. We were greatly pleased with these works and appliances at Millerton, and have nothing but praise for them. The company has profited by its experience at Deniston, and has had the advan-