LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 99, 24 September 1874, Page 2

LOAFER IN THE STREET.

Coal is probably one of the most distinguished minerals in the earth beneath us. In conjunction (occasionally)with slates you can purchase it here at about three pounds a ton. In bags you can get it at say 3s 6d, which is more expensive. The musical cry of the vendors, however, is given in, and that's worth something ; besides they may give you over a cwt. This seldom occurs. In considering the question of the price of coals on the broadest of basises, I should say getting overweight from a coal hawker was not to be reckoned on with any degree of certainty. There has been a feeling here for many years that we should supply our own coals to ourselves. I am not aware when this feeling first came to be felt, but I should judge the pre-historic moa hunters must have felt longings to develop the well-known mineral wealth which is scattered in such a profuse style all over this island. The ovens would have roasted the moas in a more genuine manner perhaps had coal been attainable. Perhaps since you've been engineering your admirable journal you may have heard that coal exists in large quantities about the province, perhaps you may heard once and again of the discovery of a NEW" SEAM. It belongs to the character of the people of this province to be continually finding seams of coal, and in most cases neglecting to develop them. We can't help finding them. Judging from what I've heard on the subject, I should say a blind man with a good sense of feel, could discover a series of coal mines in a week's trip. The lack of development arises from a vai-iety of causes too numerous to mention. One man brought a lot of coals to grass and felt pleased. It came on heavy rain in the night, and next morning the coal was all gone. This class of mineral is too fragile for general use. The owner of the mine made that remark when his coal suffered so severely from exposure. I like hearing of new coal discoveries, because I feel that our descendants of the next generation may possibly utilise them, and its just probable they may require something to help them along. I know I shall go on hearing of new seams, because any journal which failed to annouuce a fresh discovery every month or so, would inevitably lose all its subscribers. In a communication such as this, I always take care to cling to the subject with undeviating tenacity. You may have noticed this in some of my previous communications. A friend of mine says that, for writing dreary columns of stuff which nobody can read, I'm a regular mollusk. Its pleasant to haye a. truthful tribute like this. Let us proceed . No one who has taken any interest in the history of the province can separate the name of Hart from Goal. Coke may be dissolved from Lyttelton, but his Worship stands upon a pedestal of coal more enduring than brass. His proceedings in regard of the £3OO have drawn forth much comment. I understand there is a balance of the money still left. I should suggest it being invested in " doubles" for the forthcoming metropolitan meeting, and the Great Jewellery Art Union. The City Council might pull off enough for the next; two payors' salaries. That our Mayors should be well salaried I feel sure. Fancy having to wear robes and insiguia and things like that for less than £3OO a year, and getting pitched into besides We will resume our dark subject. We will plunge once more amongst the coals. This seems an eligible opportunity for remarking that for scientific articles like the present an addition to my pay in the shape of a bonus, or even of a loan, would be a graceful tribute |

to yours truly. It is as Professor Bickerton says in the last of his very interesting lectures, " only by attending a regular course of study that any real knowledge can be gained; like all valuable things it is only by hard work it can be obtained." Alas! Professor, we even then fall short sometimes of the desired end. During a long and arduous career I have studied the art of borrowing. I have, I can truthfully say, worked up the borrowing to a pitch of excellence attained by few, but I have never yet been able to find a lender who would not receive his money back aga ; n with more inertness than he displayed in parting with it. In trying to work human nature up to a higher degree of excellence in this respect I have failed ; but I still hope on. In reference to this coal discovery at Alford Forest I shall now append particulars. I'm familiar with the district in connection with ducks. I also, as you are aware, acting under orders from you, inspected a quartz reef there. When I heard that Dr Haast was going up I felt pleased, because he takes an interest in me. He says, if I follow Professor Bickerton's advice, and study hard, in twenty years' time I might know quartz from granite. I journeyed per train to the Bakaia. Does this portion of the trip call for special comment? As feudal barons under Mr G. P. B. James' dispensation observe, " adzooks, efeckins, I trow not." I then went on to the Forest with the Southern Chief. The hostelrie where people usually stop has, owing to some informality, lost its license. This is rough on the host, and you can bet its rough on the public. Would it not be possible in such cases to leave the granting of the license to the discretion of the Licensing Board. Under the circumstances the host could, if he chose, refuse to give anyone a night's lodging, which would cause the traveller arriving late on a rough night to speak gently of the Licensing Act. I feel sure of this, and assuming that Mr Thomson, of the Ashburton, who has also lost his license from some informality, chooses to close his well against all comers during the next summer, it will be pleasant for travellers on that road. I will resume : During my absence in the Southern wilds I spent a Sab. bath in the district. I walked out to see things because no church was attain* able. I saw a bucolic hero whacking a beeve apparently of a lymphatic temperament over the head with a rail. It was gay old sport for the 8.C., but I thought he deserved fining for his Sabbath amusement more than the commercial-minded gent who vended a cocoanut on a Sunday, and got fined for it recently. I did not tell him so because stalwart bucolics of six feet odd are apt to punch your head if you make remarks about them. I will delay no longer about these coal. The start proper was made from Alford station (I should like to belong to Alford station). We drove to the Forest, and left our horses at the hut of one King, a man who, I feel sure, will make himself a name yet as a prospector of some kind. Mr Sladden, who is erecting a saw mill in these parts, was of the party. He was what Captain Dyngwell wo aid call "quite the urbane and gentlemanly manager." We walked from King's hut to the coal mine. We walked through a forest. We found there's a hat full of pleasure in the pathless wood. The timber is mostly birch. Mr Buskin observes in regard of trees, that " Nature takes great pains and care to conceal the uniformity in her boughs." But she don't ; I never saw greater uniformity for tripping men up than Nature displayed in the walk through the forest up to the mine. We had a hill to go up of course. I . never visited a mine yet that you had not to ascend a hill. I paused frequently, because I like to admire ferns going up the 6ide of a mountain, and to their credit be it stated neither the U.G.itf. nor Dr Haast interrupted me. We passed moss enough to pave Colombo ' street—paddocks of moss, bosses of furred and beaming green on which, as Mr Buskin says, the wild bird could make its nest, and the wearied child his pillow. We squashed in our path lots of those eternal tapestries of the hills, and by and bye we got to THE MINE. Dr Haast, in company with his hammer, the U.G.M. and others, entered the. tunnel. For my own part I saw quite, enough coal in the creek to satisfy me. Going into mining tunnels is only another expression of getting wet through, bumping your head, burning your hands and getting cricks in your back. I like Dr Haast, and so I preferred letting him stand in for the whole thing himself, trusting to his report when he came out. I regret to say that, although through the courtesy of the doctor I made notes of the whole thing, bearings, dip, underlay, size, &c, included, I am unable to furnish you with as exact a report as I could wish, for the fact is I've lost my notes. I feel sure the finder will enjoy an intellectual treat, and if he can make out what they mean he is a high toned geologist. He is I'm sure. From memory I give you the following account of the doctor's ideas of the mine. I've forgotten some, and just given my own ideas where my memory fails. I expect you will like it though. As near as I can recollect, Dr Haast .who was, as he always is, well received, said :—" This coal is a type of the rnetamorphic carbon. Lying as it does in the diluvial darkness of antecedent epochs, who shall presume to say what effect the mica flake may have had upon the sulphurets of the Devonian period, not to say the culmination and oblique distortion of the zones of sandy gneiss. A similar distribution of granite is observable in the Chamouni aiguilles, though perhaps imperceptible to you otherwise than in connection with the billowy swellings and passive whirls of the most remote agencies we are at present aware of." I feel I have not expressed the doctor's words properly, but I've done my level best, and next time you send me to look at coals, I expect I shall do better. I may here say that I was much struck during my trip with the excellent manner in wbich some of our country roads are being made. One track which summer and winter was formerly always good, is now made into a gay river bed. Its quite pleasant to see progress in directions like these, because it shows the Road Boards must be in funds. Another point is worth the attention of those gentlemen who have the investing of our provincial moneys. I understand that the Government have voted a sum for planting a reserve on the Bakaia. I expect that if they, encored this performance in other reserves throughout the country, notably on the Canterbury Plains, it would meet with general approval, would pay in the long run, would spend some of the money which our Northern friends want so badly, would ameliorate the condition of travellers and stock, would effect climatic changes of a desirable kind, and Well. I ain't paid by the line, worse luok. In reference to forestry, if

you go round any plantation, and want to ges your name up as a botanist, fill you've got to say is, " What a fine lot of Pinus InBignissis you've got here, Jones I" If you see any hesitation about Jones, you can add, "I mean Microcarpas." When you see a very very small tree looking like a primrose trying to act the part of a fir tree, yon can Bay " that Gigantea Wellingtonia is coming on well." By acting as above yon will probably be asked to have a drink. I feel I have now given you as much as you will care to about coals for the present, but I can give you plenty more if you like. I forgot to say that diamonds are coals. Many of your readers may not have heard this. The latter are more commonly used in fires. The former fetch a higher price, but are occasionally imitated with great success.