STEAM COAL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 146, 15 March 1919, Page 13

STEAM COAL

WHERE IT COMES FROM A COAL TOWN IN THE SKY (-By Will Lawson.) (All Plights Reserved.) The coal tninei> oil the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand aro in two groups—those 'pear Westport and those of which Greymouth is the port. Concerning either of these or of the conditions Tinder which the miners engaged in them do their work, the general public •of the country is profoundly ignorant. The popular opinion appeal's'to be that the mines closely adjoin the -wharves. Perhaps it is with a vague ..idea of seeing con)- swung from tho pit's..mouth into the steamers that the ./visitor-, to W'.'atport .firat takes a walk along; tlio excellently appointed wharves'of . that port.. Though lie does not see anything: resembling a coal mine in. their vicinity, lie. will 'see coal shipped in a most up-tq-dato;manner from the trucks which havo brought it froni the mines. 'A heavy crane has attached to its lifting chain a square frame,. front which four chains and hooks depend. These are hooked into strong-steel eyes on the up'pPT edge of tho truck,--and-the body of the truck is lifted '.clear of, its wheels-and swung out ahovo the .collier's hatches. There two men knock away some holding pins, and the bottom of the truck opens downward in two sections, allowing the coal to shoot into the. hold,' where the trimmers stow it in a proper manner, while the truck body is-replaced on" its wheels. Each truck holds Si tons of coal, and the weight of the -truck is about i tons. As the string of empties is. drawn away from tlie wharves, the obvious query which occurs is: "Where aro the mines?" And the answer may be given by a townsman, with fi sweep of his arm towards. the hills that lie to the northeastward of Westport, away across the wide expanse of level pakihi—poor min-er-l lands. "The mines aro up in that range there, 2000 feet above tho railway. That is where Deni>'«ton and Millertnn and Stockton are. The coal comes down inclines to the railway. These trucks here are taken up the Denuiston incline to bfl filled. At Granit.y and .Ngakawau and Seddonvillo they nre filled on the level track from tho tubs that Tiring the coal down the ropo-ways." t Although the mines nre all on the hills, and far back from the skyline 100. tho railway sticks to the level land. There-' fore, to reach the mining towns, one must leave tho railway at tlie station nearest the feet of the inclines and find the other means of conveyance to reach the heights. T)enniston is best off in this mutter, in having a motor mail-car from.Wnimnngnroa. a station nine inile3 out. From the station f»e en* dim** by. a zisevenmile road, which makes one of the most enjoyable of motor drives, as the view of sea and coastline opens out before the eye, and Denniston is reached almost abruptly once the crest of the tableland is reafched. The formation of the land is of «"ind.<t«ne. makiig for a bleakness of appearance. As far as the eye can see there are only sandstone ridges to be seen. But the town itself, though equally devoid of ornament, and | containing many unpainted houses, is clean, and more than interesting. Its extreme edge is right on the ridge, and from below makes a silhouette which ter■minates in a tall, smokina chimney, and a long-legged."tip-head. Ironi this precipitous place a grey streak may be seen down the hillside. This is the' incline down and up which run the bij railway coal trucks- > Towards this': interesting place the visitor to -Denniston'is taken, to see the coal go out to the world from the heights. This is the Westport Coal Company's tfrritorv, and the coal which is going out is Coalbrookdalo, taken from ■the Iron Bridge, Wareatea. .. Wareatea Extended, Cascade, and Callan's Creek mines. 'A rope-way. lending for .several 'miles, and with several junotioning lines, brings the coal in tubs containing about JScwt. .each, which run on rails, and are moved onward and onward at. a slow pace by an endless' rope to which the trucks are shackled with removable chains.' As each of these,little wagons rumbles into the top floor of the huge discharging bins a lad knocks the shackles off and removes from one end of the tub a metal disc on a string—the number of the miner who has filled it." Then the tub is steadied ou to a weighbridge, and as it rolls slowly across tho bridge, the lad calls out : the number. Inside the weights office, a huge pointer tells the weight in cwts. on a broad dial. Two men write down in separate ledgers the number of the miner and the weight of coal in :the .tub. One of these, recorders represents the company and the other the men. The entries of each are a check op the other. From this stage the tub gathers impetus, and finally is hurled upside down over an opening which lets the coal fall into bins below, from which it is sorted and screened and carried along to where the big railway trucks 6tand, looking like objects which have wandered far from their native heath. It is a sight well worth watching to see these loaded wagons dash down a grade varying from 1 in 1 to 1J in 1— plumb and a bit over" as this incline has been graphically described. Each loaded truck in its descent brings upward an empty one of the same kind. There is an endless rope, the upper end of which is wound round a heavy, powerful brake drum. When the ioaded truck is ready it is attached to the cable and given a push. It rolls steadily towards tho brink, tips forward slightly as it takes a preliminary plunge, and gathers speed. Tlien it reaches the part that is "plumb and a bit over." The coal slithers forward and is caught on the lip of the truck, and the pace becomes a cracker. In the meantime, half-way down the ascent, where there is a less steep place, an empty wagon which has just been attached to the cable—this incline is worked in two sections—begins, to show intense animation. It rushes upwards, swerves into a switch, where the downward hurtling wagon whizzes past it. The up-bound truck looms larger with great rapidity, and presently conies up the steepest place like an express train—at an astonishing pace which sends it clear ,on to tho level track under the loading shoots. And another loaded one goes down and anothor empty comes up, as soon as the preceding ones have been cleared and hooked on to the lower rope and taken down to the branch railway at Conn's Creek, from where it, in time, reaches the Westport wharf. The thing which constantly interests the stranger in Denniston, while he remains in the part of the! town which is on the verge, is the strange outlook one has from door and window, from the ends of the streets and from any vantage point whereon he may be standing. Always he looks out upon a blue mistiness through which, like a distant thing, far. far below him is the sea, and the pakihi lands, and tho everyday places "where the world wags on. Often Denniston is swafjhed in mjst and the impression then must be stranger still. The sense of nloofness from tho world must bo intensified,