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remunerative to work. This is the grave danger to the coal-industry of New Zealand. The mines are disappointing expectations, based upon external indications, but it is idle to blame mineowners for omitting to work seams which can only be worked at a loss. Mokihinui Mines. Westport-Cardiff. —We have already given so full a description of this property that we deem it unnecessary to trouble Your Excellency with further observations thereon. Mokihinui Company's Mine. —This company has had a chequered, and at some periods of its existence, a stormy career. Some portions of its history is recorded in a parliamentary paper of nearly eighty pages—C.-8, 1889. The conflict between Mr. Eugene o'Conor and the directors of the company during the year 1892 rose almost to historic importance, and is recorded in the said paper; but the company went into liquidation, and on the 21st February, 1899, the mine was handed over to the Government by the liquidators. Up to that date 43,000 tons of coal had been produced, and £40,000 capital lost. The seams in this mine are divided into three, viz.-—the Big Seam Mine, the Upper Mine, and the Hut Seam Mine. In the first named, all the available coal is said to be worked out; the second chiefly contains soft coal; the last contains only coal-faulty, soft, and intermixed with stone. Such was Mr. Tennent's report in May, 1899, and there is good reason to believe that the feeling in the Mokihinui district against that officer arose from the unfavourable nature of his report. Mr. Corby candidly avows this to be the case, and others less candid hardly concealed the reason for their antagonism. We hope that it will be long before a public officer suffers for honestly-expressed opinions given in the discharge of his duty. Opinions may differ as to the value of the coal in this area, those who have little to lose and something to gain are apt to be optimistic in their view of mining-ventures; but Mr. Tennent's opinion is entitled to respect in this instance, and we have learned nothing which will enable us to differ from it. The most hopeful area in this district is that known as the " Cave " area, of which Mr. R. B. Denniston, a well-known coal-expert, reported favourably, though not positively. We understand that this area will be tested, and, if possible, opened. It is situated in the Westport-Cardiff lease, and lies between that area and the Mokihinui Company's area. In May, 1899, a fire was existent in the Big Seam Mine, and we believe is still alive, though sealed off. It should be watched lest further mischief occur. Last year a party of twelve practical coal-miners obtained a lease of the Mokihinui Company's Mine from the Government, and worked it on co-operative principles, with the result that they obtained 14,000 to 16,000 tons of coal from the Upper Mine, paying £3,000 to £4,000 in wages, and £2,200 to the Government for railway haulage, and £350 royalty. It is uncertain what further quantity will be obtained, but there is not very much known coal left in the mine. The coal which has been obtained by this party bears out the description given of it by Mr. Tennent. It is, however, a fairly good steam coal. It is so long since the company worked the mine, and the men employed have so scattered over the colony, that no information was given us as to the inspection, control, and management by the company. At the time of our inquiry there were no complaints, and apparently no reason to complain. The mine was thoroughly ventilated and timbered, and apparently safe. Grey Valley Mines. The mines specially committed to our notice in this district are the Brunner Dip, Brunner Rise, and Blackball. The two former form part of a group of mines situated at the locality known as Brunner, on the Grey River, some eight miles above the town and port of Greymouth. Greymo uth is the most important town on the west coast of the South Island, containing a population of 3,000, and is the centre of trade for Westland, Grey, and Inangahua Counties. A railway is completed to Reefton, and Greymouth is the terminus of the Midland Railway. It commands a considerable quantity of agricultural land, besides vast quantities of timber ; its goldfields appear to be reviving, and its coal supply has largely contributed to its prosperity. The port of Greymouth has been improved at a cost of about £200,000 for which the Government of the colony has given a guarantee. In the y ear ending December, 1900, 624 steamers and twenty-four sailing-vessels entered the port, representing 199,834 tons ; the average depth of water on the bar has been 20 ft. The harbour suffers from its exposure to heavy seas from the south-west and north-east, and is at times impossible to enter. The Reefton Railway passes close to the mines at Brunner, and within three miles of the Blackball Mine. In 1891 a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire, inter alia, into the circumstances attending the coal-mining industry at Brunner, and we make use of the following data given in the Commissioners' Report :— " The Brunner Mine consists of 1,280 acres, comprised in Section 2a Sq. 119, Grey Coal Reserve, a lease of which was originally granted to Messrs. Hughes and McCarthy for twenty-one years from Ist January, 1874. This lease was by them transferred to the Brunner Coal-mining Company in 1875, and afterwards, in 1879, to Mr. Martin Kennedy, who surrendered it in December, 1886, and obtained in lieu thereof a new lease for sixty-three years from Ist January, 1887, at an increased rental and output. This lease is still in force, but was acquired by the Grey Valley Coal Company in August, 1888. The conditions are the payment of a dead-rent, and the output of a specific quantity of coal, as follows : First eight years' rent £4to, output 45,000 tons; next 28 years' rent £750, output 75,000 tons ; last 27 years' rent £1,000, output 100,000 tons, and during the first eight years a royalty of 6d. a ton, to be thereafter increased for the remainder of the lease to Is. The dead-rent, however, is merely a minimum of royalty, and is not chargeable when the royalty exceeds it in amount. The output from this mine up to 1900 was 1,594,027 tons, and during the year 1899 was 96,511 tons; the total royalty paid to the Government amounted, at 6d. a ton, to £39,850. The property was assigned in 1888 to the Grey Valley Coal Company