THE RESOURCES OF THE GREY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1253, 5 August 1872, Page 2

THE RESOURCES OF THE GREY.

No. 2— COAii. -j" i ;; The great Robert Lowe in "one of -his speeches cays— " We must legislate for posterity ; we must think of future generations and for their benefit — muet submit to some inconvenience rather than exbaiu¥tWr'-Tes6urii»s;'" :: -The : Nels6n'Qo-' vernment outrHerods Herod, and not only doesnot exhaust our resources, but has introduced and hitherto upheld, a thoroi3ghly obstructive policy that, effectually retards even their development. Dr Mueller, of Melbourne, in a recentiecture on- forest; culture, says it: is; our duty to leave the country as near- as possible as we ; findit.' What apt pupils the worthy doctor wouldjfind among the : nonentities of Blind Bay. , Such .thoughts ■ as these must naturally arise in the mind of anyone who takes the trouble to notice the line of action pursued by the Provincial Government hi the matter of our coal seams. A , private company: wishes ; to rent a portion of the reserve. They are ; told. that the Government entertain ideas of workirig-the mine on a gigantic scale, ; and therefore, do not think it advisable to grant the lease. The -Superintendent says the Brunrier • mine does not pay, yet refuses to bandit over to a company that, would make it remunerative. I presume; Mr Curtis suffers the annoyance, and lets : the country bear the loss, because he thinks it better to do so than allow the j whole to fallon the shoulders- of tho-'few misguided individuals who would ; be lessees, and, as a matter of course, large sufferers.' : Or perhaps our rulers imagine that the! coal deposits of the Grey Valley can be easily exhausted. -Let me endeavor to free their minds from 'this very erroneous impression. My opinion, baaed upon cursory observation only, may not be very valuable, but certainly my idea is that the Grey Valley cdal seatris extend from the coast to the' dividing range— • the beds in all places of immense thickness, and all alike; easy of access, Do not suppose I wish' you to belieye'in an unbroken seam of coal extending throughout the' Grey Valley. ' Such a seam would be against all geological law and precedent. Intimately connected with the carboniferous system are nurae* rous intrusions of ; igneous rocks, showing it was an era of . much volcanic disturb? anoe. The sedimentatybeds are from this cause much broken up and dislocated^ and the numerous upheavals of primary rocks'throughout the Grey Valley, would necessarily cause extensive breaks in the great seam of coal that would otherwise have occupied their place. ' At the risk of being considered tedious, let me endeavor to illustrate more plainly my meaning. Coal is a true stratified rock belonging to a formation known as : the secondary. After this system was formed it was much broken up by the disruption or forcing up •of 'the lower : ropkj slate, granite, &c, &c. To shew 1 this effect; suppose a number of sheets of paper forced down upon a quantity o\ spikes of various siges and shapes } then let the whole be covered to a point above the ragged edge of the paper, | anj} you have a rough model ojt fihecpal formation Crude, but correct,, for' wherever you found the ; spikes you. : need * riot look f oj the paper, and wherever; r you found, .the paper it would be in broken pieces leaning against tl . spikes ; so wherever the oldei rocks that form our mountain chains occupy the surface it Willbe useless tc look for coal, and wherever the coal may be discovered, it will be found in large disunited masses tilted up usually at 1 hig;h angle of inclination against the sides of the lower rocks. For this reason the Brunnerton cpal-mme can be workec with much greater advantage thai the continuation; of the same seair at the opposite side of the river. The mine on the Nelson side ; lies between the rifer and the range, and consequently the dip of] toward ;thj? niouth pi the pit; therefore thp mine shpijld b'p Bslf-draining, T;he proximity of the mountain will, however; limit the area'oi the keam, while on the other side there is no apparent geological bai to prevent its continuity for milesr. : This seam alone if sufficiently .capacious to supply all the towns in the. southern hemisphere with fuel for. years, if it was only competeritlj wrought; but if this seam were worked out to-morrow morning, it need make nc perceptible difference in our coal supply. I bejieyg the seam at the Ttn Mile Creek to be equally exiehaiye, and p^xiite as. easy to be worked. Nearly. every. creek* between the Grey and Buller Rivers cuts one or more large seams of this valuable mineral.. ; - . ■ ; : ; Murray's Creek, beyond the head waters of the Grey, was worked out on a coal bottom, arid in the course of f my wanderings in search of gold, I have seen more seams of coal in the Grey Valley tnaft at ;'th"§ present moment J can from memory count, Some years ago, % crosßed- over from the Big River, a tributary of the Grey that joins the main river near the Little Greyj and followed down a stream that joins with the Inangahua below Fern Flat ; and in the bed of that stream I saw a coal seam which may not inaptly be designated as magnificent. , For many yards I passed between two perpendicular walls .of the glitteriug mineral. As far a? I could reach up to, displace the overhanging mpases it reached, and as far as' the water would permit me to sink, I found no change. I could mention many other places where coal outcrops in the Grey Valley/ In short, our coal supply is almost inexhaustible. I will, therefore, conclude with a few general remarks upon the origin of the mineral which must sooner or later conduce materially to the prosperity of your town, and may therefore possess some interest to your readers. Two hypotheses have been advanced respecting the circumstances under which coal was formed. According to one, the vegetable matter of which it is wholly formed must I have grown in thick forests and dense jungles for many years ; then the land must have sunk and become the basin of a lake or estuary, iii^ which' situation rivers would wash into it mud and sand, which would cover the, vegetable mass and form superincumbent beds of shale and sandstone respectively. Then the ground would be once more elevated, and again become a scene of luxuriant vegetation, only to be again submerged, and this alternating process is supposed to have taken place as often as there are beds of coal to be accounted for. The other hypothesis is tliat suggested by, the knowledge of what is ponsta.ntly gpingonin our own time at the mouths of grpat rivers,, such as the Amazon or Mississippi, which show us that enormous quantities of.vegetdMe refuse, drawn away from the shores of the sylvan regions through

which their' waters are carried down! arid form 1 vast riatdfal .rafts, constantly increasing iii si^e irid density Until they 1 sink td thg bottom a"rid g'rddtially become coveir'ed witti a bed o't saiid arid mdd. Both theories are beset with difflcdltieij and, perhaps, the true solution is to be 1 found in a combination of the two. There* is.nq, doubt butihat .cpal.ia essentially vegetable in its origin, and a high temperature,; combined with a r prolific flora, with frequent elevations and subsidences of the land, seem to have been the conditions under which thecoal measures were deposited. • . •