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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4310, 29 August 1921, Page 2

A notice has been gazetted under Part II of the,Coal Trade Regulation's, abolishing the coal trade districts and 'the coal .trade committees throughout the Dominion. > This step, foreshadowed some weeks ago, has been taken ia view of the adequate supplies of coal, imported and otherwise, now available.

Which is the first mention of mining in literature ? One can hardly get much further back than the Book of Job, in the 28th chapter of whicn the operation is described in surprising detail. The writer tells of a district —probably Sinai or Egypt—where “iron is 'taken out of the earth, and copper is molten out of the stone. Man setteth an end to darkness —carrying his light down the mine or shaft —and searcheth out to the * furthest bound the stones of thick darkness”— a description which would be suitable for cpal. The sinking, of /the shaft is described : “He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn; they are forgotten of the foot that passeth by. They hang afar, they swing to and fro” —as they descend info the bowels of the earth. The ninth verse suggests an anticipation of blasting long prior to the days of explosives. Then there is an illusion to draining, and damming the waters is mentioned in the next: verse : “He bindeth the streams that they trickle not.”