The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4197, 9 August 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1876.

Coal aud iron have been said, with some exaggeration, but, nevertheless, with a substratum of truth underlying the assertion, to be the prime sources of England’s indusinal greatness. Perhaps the real cause of her supremacy in this respect is to be found m the superior energy of her people, but still it must be admitted that their vigor would have been of little avail unless he country itself had possessed an abundant supply of tbe raw materials required in the puiTimt of the industrial arts, and of these ui motlorn m.-mu'achimc coal and iron play p most , 1 ’ , ;1 ,01 f ; aut parts, although Tubal Cain ami Ins coadjutors seem to have con- ! rivcd to do without them. The quantity of >ron ore existing in Now Zealand md capable of profitable utilisation, is as Vet um ctonmnecl but fuller information has me gaohei'cd aboi.t the amount of mineral ue.uth, in the shape of c al u-ldi-1> "ud* 11, wl l ' 81 } SCafc i Cred ovcr islands, o»ly awaits the enterprise of man to become the spring of umumerabla bandit, to bim, fei coal

seams of this country are of vast extent and thickness, and in mere area approach those of Great Britain ; but here the comparison ends. Most of the coal-beds of Great Britain belong, geologically speaking, to the carboniferous formation, which coutains the true coal series, whereas the oldest seams in -New Zealand are of a considerably more modern date ; while the majority of them were formed in the Tertiary period, and only yield “ brown coal,” degenerating in many cases into lignite, such as is obtained from the poorer sections of the Green Island held. Coal of this kind is, of course, much less valuable than true coal, especially for steam purposes, its bulk and the large quantity of water which it contains practically prohibiting its use on board of steamers. There is also another material drawback to the commercial value of the New Zealand coal beds. The seams, in some places, lie either at inaccessible depths, or in situations which render the cost of transport of the coal to the coast and its shipment so heavy as to exclude it from the market—at all events in the present state of things. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive an ordinary state of circumstances which would make it commercially profitable to work some of the seams w lllg “° lon g the mountain ranges of the VV eat Coast, excellent in quality and extensive as they are. Fortunately, others are better placed, although even the latter lack natural facilities for shipment. The various hindrances which now beset the warking of the accessible fields in this part of the Middle Island will however disappear in time, and enormous fields of first class coal will th'-n be available. The Boiler field alone "is estimated to contain 140,000,000 tons of coal, most of it being ' xn se ams thick enough to enable Vhe miner to carry on hrs operations with safety and profit. browrf J sland there “ an immense rw CO a\ bed Btr . etchin g along the West Coast, and to a considerable distance : nland, trom Mokau to somewhere in the Wanganui istnet, its southern boundary not having d * j vas * * >ed » however, has been shattered by volcanic disturbances, and the entire mass of Mount Egmont seems to have been thrust through it bodily, the result being that the greater part of the coal now lies at a depth of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, and is, therefore, unavailable at present, me time may, of course, come when it will pay to open up coal mines in New Zealand even to that depth. Still, the bed could be utilised to a certain extent but for the Maon difficulty, since there are outcrops on the banks of the Mokau river. Utago, in this respect, possesses a marked superiority, since her seams, while yielding brown coal only, are situated in places convenient for the miner, and the only obstacles which have stood in the way of their development have been the cost of labor and similar hindrances. The economic gain which would accrue to tae country if its coalfields were fully worked.

has been frequently pointed out both in the Assembly and by the Pres* j and considerable capital has been expended in coalmining. By this time we ought pretty well to have shut out foreign coal from the New Zealand market; but so far from this having been done, the import trade in that article is increasing, for whereas in 1874 the Colony imported 128,719 tons, Valued at L 211.081 • boU S bfc 147 ’ 750 Valued at L 246,536, m foreign markets. The increase is probably due to the advance which commercial industry of all kinds has recently been making, and to the extension of our railway system; but looking at the labor aud money which have been spent m planting “local industries,” some of them of an exotic character, it seems to imply a certain amount of misdirected energy when the profits of so large a trade are permitted to go into the pockets of foreign colliery owners instead of serving to enrich our own. Since, too, the Colony has incurred such heavy liabilities for the purpose of Constructing an extensive railway system, it is certainly desirable that its railways should be made as beneficial to the Colony as possible ; and that the expenditure upon their working and maintenance should assist to support its population. Goal ihUst alwaVs be a heavy item of this expenditure; and if brown coal could be used for the locomoVe ri 18 P^ a ’ n that a substantial gain to the Colony would result; while, on the other hand, if the railway authorities use sea-feorne coal only, or to a great extent, then, as the traffic increases, so will the foreign coal bill of the Colony grow in length. Mr WaRoU haS obtained the appointment o! a Select Com-

mittee of the House of Representatives “to Inquire into the expediency of using brown and other native coal as fuel for steam pnr!>oses on the lines of railway in New Zeaand,”and from the manner in which the House received the suggestion the committee’s inquiries are likely to lead to some practical good. Mr RiottAttfisloh, indeed, stated that the railway engineers were fully alive to the Value of the Colonial cbil for locomotive purposes, and some of the locomotives were being altered to. permit the use of these coals. There seems no real difficulty in the matter. Mr Curtis mentioned a fact which is not generally knowh, nfilliely, that “brown coal of a character certainly not superior to that which abounds in this Colony, has been, and is still used on the railways in the interior cf the Continent—and this not only during the last few years, but since railways Were first hiade ’’ It is simply a question of dfcHihg olit of the old ruts, Oil llic occasion of Mr Wason moving for the committee, the Premier ventilated the subject of converting browp coal into patent fuel'. Dr Hector, several years ago, pointed out that Otago coal could be utilised in this way, aiyjl the lessees of som.e epal beds on tub \V aiKaco nave been making inquiries at Home on their own account; but while the project may be feasible enough, it would obviously he applicable to an export tr.uie only, and for the present our colliery proprietors \vill find ample employment for ttsir capital ah cl enterprise in supplying the home market.