Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1901. OUR COAL MEASURES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 28 February 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star, AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1901. OUR COAL MEASURES.

Whatever ultimately may bo the result of the enquiries now being made by the Coal Commission, it is certain that in this district they have already rendered good service in eliciting evidence, showing how the coal interests of this district have suffered through neglect, in matter of development Mr Russell, the Mayor of Brunner, was the first witness to give material evidence on this point, and he was very emphatic in his denunciations that the coal measures had been unfairly treated ; the Wallsend Mine closed down when magnificent coal was in sight and that other mines had been similarly dealt with, in his opinion, in the interests of the Westport Coal Company. Now Mr Russell is not only Mayor of Brunner, a position that gives his utterance weight, but he has been a practical miner, has worked in the mines referred to and we presume speaks, so far as the coal is oncerned, from personal knowledge of the position of affairs. His evidence is, therefore, not only valuable, but it is such that the Government cannot ignor. He plainly dec'ared that magnificent coal exists and was in eight in a mine that was closed up as he believed to benefit a mine in another locality. One would think this evidence was about as strong as could ba obtained ; but even stronger was forthcoming, for our Brunner correspondent in another column of this issue declares that Mr Frank Wills gave evidence before the Commission to the effect that he had interviewed the management of the Westport Coal Company with the object of buying the Wallsend colliery while the machinery was on the ground, although several years after it had ceased working, and the first stipulation made by the manager was: " You must find a market for your coal outside of New Zealand," and of course that finished all negotiations for the purchase of the mine. This is indeed an extraordinry statement, and is practically to the effect that the Westport Company had determined to prevent the sale of coal from the Wallsend Mine within the colony of New Zealand. It has taken years to bring forth this evidence ; but it is now public, and must bo further investigated. As was mentioned the other day, the colony has spent, and is still spending, large sums of money to improve our ports for the express purpose of aiding in the development of our coal mines, and while this has been going on, if the evidence given is thoroughly reliable, certain interested

parties have been doing their utmost to close down our mines and by their action declare that they are worthless. On the other hand Mr. Bishop, in his evidence gives a general denial. The coal in Wallsend was dirty and full of stones, and that this and the fact that better coal was in abundance to meet the then requirements was the cause of the stoppage of the Wallsend Mine. We dare say there is truth in Mr. Bishop's statement. The demand then was small, the supply ample, but now the supply, is not equal to the demand, and this fact taken in conjunction with Messrs Russell and Well's evidence is sufficiently strong to warrant immediate and persistent action in appealing to the Government to conipel the owners to reopen and work the mines, or failing this, step in; cancel the leases and resuming possession, and work the pits as State .concerns. What this district has lost through closing down of our mines is more than we care to set down. That however is past. What we have now before us is to endeavour to rectify past mistakes if they have been made and prevent further influences from retarding the coal industry in the district.