THE Grey River Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER, 15, 1867.

Grey River Argus, Volume IV, Issue 274, 15 October 1867, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. TUESDAY, OCTOBER, 15, 1867.

The tovo great resources of the Grey District are undoubtedly its gold and coal fields, and upon tliese we must for a considerable, period, mainly depend, While the production of the former may, for aught, we yet know, be limited in extent, the produce of the latter will be, for all the purposes of the present generation, nnliniited, It has been demon strated by geologists and men that on the banks of the Grey River there are immense coal fields, containing perhaps the finest quality of coal to be found in the Australian Colonies ; and yet, although this has been proved ber yond dispute, it is a melancholy fact that at least one.-half. of these valuable mines are lying idle. • This is in a great degree attributable to the laches of thai? Government from whose trammels we were so lately set free, for, it -was only during the last session of the Canterbury Provincial Council that permission was granted to lease the mines oil the Bouth side of the Grey River. True, the mines on the north side of the river have been and are now, being worked, but with what a miserable result fa ots can testify.,- It has been a matter of frequent complaint by masters and ' agents of vessels trading to this port that they cannot obtain the quantity of coal they .want without great delay, and even then it is only obtainable at such a price that it won't even pay to carry as ballast, But notwithstanding these drawbacks the demand for Grey coal is increasing at a ratio beyond the Nels< n Goal Company's power of production, so long as the present system of management is continued. A year ago it was promised that all these defects would be remedied — that to make the supply equal to the demand, a tramway would be immediately laid down from the wharf to the mine, so as to obviate those interruptions to the boat traffic caused by the flooding of the river. How have those promises been fulfilled] A survey of the proposed' line of tramway was taken, and the plans sent to the headquarters of the Company at Ballarat, but nothing "further was done, beyond the building of a few new coal barges. Under these circumstances it may well be believed that we hail with no ordinary feelings of satisfaction the proposal to form a. local company for the purpose of working the mines on the Canterbury side of the Grey River. This has long been talked of, but now the proposition has taken a practical shape, and, as will be seen by a report in another column, the preliminary steps for this purpose have already been taken. Tiic schen c is now being entered into by the promoters aud provisional directors with that amount of energy which augurs for it a' successful termination. This step has been taken at the proper time, for the transfer of this district from the Canterbury Government to that of the County of Westland, has also transferred all the reserves in the district to the direct control of the Governor or his appointed deputy. The clause in the Act by which this was effected runs thus : — " All estate and interest of the Superintendent of the said Province [Canterbury] in. any- public reserves or lands in the said County, shall, upon the coming into operation of this Act, forthwith vest in the Governor, who shall have with respect to such reserves all the powers conferred upon the Superintendent and Provincial Council, by grant under the Public Reserves Act, 1864." It will thus be seen that no great difficulty stands in the way cf the local Company obtaining from the Deputy-Governor a lease of the, coal mines, unless a lease has previously been executed under the Act passed by the Provincial Council to the company which was said to have been formed in Christchurch for the working of these mines. But we should say it is m©st unlikely that such a transaction has taken place, for that Act makes it compulsory upon any company taking up the reserve to commence operations within six months from the signing of -the lease, and to bring to Greymouth, by rail or tramway, within the first eighteen months, not less than 5000 tons of coal. t No signs of vitality on the part of any Christchurch company have yet been noticed in the neighborhood of the mine, and we believe our conjecture is correct that there-is really uo such company in existence. So we anticipate foil: the projected local company no> grea& 'difficulty in obtaining ;the I' ■ '

lease of the mine on the most favorable terras, and /we' believe that the shares in the company "will readily be taken up, if nbt here, in Hokitika and Nelson, This is no ephemeral scheme, but, what one of the speakers at the public meet ing called " a permanent investment"— one which, if cai-ried out with energy, will make prosperous not only the shareholders but the whole town and district, We need not urge upon the provisional directors " the necessity for immediate and energetic action — their names are a sufficient guarantee that this will be used— we only express the hope to see the company speedily and successfully launched.upon the market, It is only right to state that the formation of this company is entirely due to Mr Joseph ' Kilgour, aud for his energetic action in the matter the entire district will yet, we believe, have cause to thank him,