WAITOHU COLLIERY LTD

Hokitika Guardian, 28 June 1923, Page 1

WAITOHU COLLIERY LTD

;.] LOXDOX, May 18 j An extraordinary meeting ol sharoI bolder.' m the Waitohu (RceiTuin Colliery. Ltd., wa- belli tbi- afternoon, Alt G. 11. Llewellyn, chairman of the company, presiding. Owing to the re-j eeot issues of the Xew Zealand Govern- j ment and municipal securities, the ''j efforts of the director- in placing de,7 bent tires of the company have been j greatly handicapped. However good jt other tntbi-trial enterprises may he. te they cannot expeei sati-inctorily to compete with those guaranteed by Governmeut and local authorities. '! It was therefore decided to rcorganil ' ■ -i 1 the company s hnauees, and to this end tile directors entered into negor tiiitions with a well-established finane eial linn for the provision of the oapit till necessary to complete the long- ' awaili'd transport et|tiiptnent from the j mine to the Government line of railr way. In the course of a report the C'hairi man said it would never have keen possible to secure the Waitohu property at anything like the price paid lor it had it not. been lor exceptional ci rcti ms! a nee- (nut,led with the lack of capital and energy exhibited by the former owners, who were discouraged by the appearance of it fault in the coal senins after having driven on them in . the adit levels for about 800 ft. Sub- , sequent- expenditure showed that this . fault was not a serious one, and the - seams had since been proved by the company and by the Government Boring Organisation to live throughout the entire length of the property. Fttr-t-her. they had discovered the existence r‘ other and equally vafuahle seams which would, w Lou developed, add tremendously to the coal reserves. The company owing] n eoaf-Lcaring property of about 27ti acres containing semibit uiuiiious coal of first-class quality. Probably (he bc-t coal of its class in ! the Dominion, and its commercial exploitation to-day was simply a transport scheme which would cost little money to complete compared with what bad already been spent to prove and develop the mine. Competent engineers bad estimated that the quantity of coal existing in I the two proved seams alone would bo sufficient for an output of at least 1011,000 tons per annum for twenty or mure years. The connecting line could bo completed within four or live months ; at an estimated cost of Tj'OfiO, when j the company’s coal would not onlv he j marketed locally at Reefton, hut could he shipped at Grcymouih and Westport for the North Island, where there was a large demand for this class of coal. Tt could also bo conveyed by rail through the (Him tunnel to the large towns and districts on the oasl side of the South Island. The completion and opening of this tunnel was \ one of the most important events in \ the 1 itttire commercial development and ; prosperity of the South Island, and i would be a tremendous factor in the f expansion oT the coal trade in the j Reefton district. jj