MAURICEVILLE COAL PROSPECTS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 76, 23 December 1907, Page 11

MAURICEVILLE COAL PROSPECTS.

: ■^r:J ; -j.~ —— rit-r-. -. Considerable, interest is; being displayed in 'the Wairarapa over : tho reported coal discoveries "in the Mauriceville district. The fields observation are upon tho property of Messrs;V;F;: Kummer •.and Hoffeins, and aro close >to'; the ■ railway line. Both Messrs. Kummer-and.Hoffeins have bored and excavated, and they..have';come upon outcrops of coal '.something like, that of. Kaitangata iri quality.' -Mr. Kummer has spent several hundreds of pounds in tunneling and is now down abont two hundred feet. Soveral experts, notably Messrs':' Hall'.'Perry,"and Graham, have * lately, inspected this mine and .their reports have been favourable. Messrs. Hall and Perry express tho opinion that'the coal is. good, and they think that thero is plenty.of.it. ■■Mr. Graham, who is a mining engineer from Vancouver, roports that thefo are indications of coal, and now Mr. I. , Hayes, •■ ex-Government Inspector of Mines, is inspecting tho fields. ■ It is regrettable that something definite could not be obtained in the nature of a report from some responsible official. Various financial institutions have offered to bear the cost of further boring and excavating, but Mr. Kummer has,'preferred"to stand alone. There is no doubt that there is coal, and that what has been .found is a superior class of lignite; but the question is! How much is there, and ■where.is it? This information can only be disclosed by tho expenditure of a large amount.of.money..:Cbal in large areas would make the Wairarapa fifty times moro prosperous, that it is at present, and the, koy to the position,'writes pur, Wairarapa correspondent, .lies irt tho, hands of Mr.-Kummer. There Ms -'an -added' intprest to the whojo: business: at preaont,' owing to: the reported attondanco on the coal district of Mr/Martin Kennedy, ono of tho shrewdest business men in the Dominion. ,