THE COAL QUESTION.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 17 April 1901, Page 3

THE COAL QUESTION.

Mr Joseph Proud judged from what he had seen of the mountains of Canterbury that they were rich in coal—not, perhaps of the quality won from the mines of the western side of the range, but good useful brown coal, that would havo been a godsend to the people of Canterbury last winter, and there is every livelihood that it will be in request during the approaching winier. There were numerous deposits of coal that were known to exist in the Canterbury hills, some of which might be worked profitably, others perhaps could not be so worked. His idea was that a geological survey be made for coal, and maps issued as a result of it, with the outcrops plotted upon these maps, and he was sure that great good would follow the placing of the information collected by the geologist in the hands of the public. Thc'time would come, and that soon, at the present rate of progress made by the colony, when every ton of coal that could be won from the colony's measures would have a special value, and wo should, therefore, keep our eyes open for sources within our own islands from which to increase the supply. It did seem extraordinary to him, with the known wealth in coal possessed by New Zealand, that any part o£ the colony, especially within easy distance of a port or a good coal area, should, be in want of fuel at the season when the fuel was most wanted. It was not for him to say what legislation, if any, was wanted, but. it was certainly for the people to see that the coal of the colony was not wasted, nor allowed to lie unworked, nor worked in an unscientific manner. Mr Proud was astonished at the way in which the inspection of mines was carried out in Canterbury. At the Homestead mine, though everything was found all right under Mr Thomas Brown's management, it was far from proper that the inspector should visit the mine at yearly intervals only. His last visit was on June Bth, 1900, and Mr Proud thought that these visits should bo monthly at the very least. True, there had been only two fatal accidents in twenty-two years, and the manager had never found indications of either black damp or gas, but coal mines of any kind should not he left in this way without inspection.