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King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 611, 15 October 1913, Page 2

"This subject ia a particularly difficult one in New Zeaalnd as the question of utilising our inland waterways is entirely novel. We have no local experience to guide us, and aho so many have no idea of the great use made of inland water communication in other countries, or of the great developments made in this mode c£ transportation during late years. As an instance of this I may menthn the Royal Commission set up some years ago by the British Government, an-1 who have lately reported most favourably in favour of water carriage, even in a country ?o well served with railways as the United Kingdom. In Germany, where the State practically owns all the railways and canals, the latter have their fullest development, and I mention thi? particularly as many people here imagine that w®ter competition sawrt necessatily prejudicially affect our railways. I think that this is quite a wrong conclusion to come to, and that any sound progress made by a district must of necessity be shared by our main source of transportation the railway.

"Tha Waikato district is essentially a great coal country—the workings, out-crops and borings show that them are more or less continuous beds of coal from near the Thames Gulf to Te Kuiti and far beyond. The United Ccal Company are working coal on the Mavamarua river far to the east of th 9 railway, their aeam being of extraordinary thinness, and .this company at present carry their coal many miles by water before it is transferred to railway trucks near Mercer. The Taupiri Coal Company at Huntly are working two mines, and till lately were working a third. This comparr;, ducing last year sold 250,160 tons of coal. They have great deposits n£ coal In the Raglan county yet undeveloped. The Pukemiro Ccal Company have atso large deposits of easily worked coal, towards which the Government are constructing; a branch line from Huntly of about six miles in length, which will open up a great basin of coal belonging to several owners. The VVaipa Kailway and Collieries Company have nearly finished their six-milw railway from Ngaruawahia to their great coal deposits at Te Akatea. South of this the coal deposits have not bevn yet worked, but outcrops, etc., show that the coal measures exteri! far to the south. Near Eikurangi in the Kawhia county a large seam was exposed till a scrub fire set it en fire many years ago. It smouldered for years till the overlie tumbled down and smothered it. In the Waitomo County there are cv>tcrops between Otorohauga and Te Kuiti. There can be no doubt of the enormous deposits of coal within easy reach of the Waikato and Waipa river;, in the Waikato, Raglan, Kawhia and Waitomo Counties, Raglan especially has iarge areas of proved coalbearing lands. "The quality of the coal has been proved for many years, and is especially valued as a household coal, while even its slack has proved an entirely satisfactory steaming coal in many of the largest steam planta in and about Auckland and elsewhere. It has also proved itself an especially good fuel for gas producer plants, and is also use mixed with other coals in producing gas for lighting, etc. There iB no question as to the amount of our coal or its quality, but naturally at this stage it is an open queetion how much of this is likely to go to the Manukau and Waitemata harbours by water, if a through water way is constructed.

"The determining factor in this will be the cost of carriage. The present railway freight to Auckland from Huntly is 6s 6d per ton, and from Ngaruawahia 6s lOd. Coal is carried by water in enormous quantities for much longer istances, for a few pence per ton, but our conditions at anv rate at present will not enable us to handle coal in large quantities, and there are also the canal and wharfage dues to db taken intb account. "I venture to estimate that the cost of conveying coal by the propose canals to any point on the extensive Waitemata Harbour at 3s 6d per ton, and I consider this estimate one that will be reduced as the traffic developee. This would mean a saving of 3s per ton on the present cost of transportation, plus it being landed in many cases close to where it is to be used, for instance, the Auckland electrical power plant where this coal is now ussd. For th\s reason it should open up new markets for Waikatj coal all round the Mannkau and Waitemata IT a r!.-o;::.':?, enabling it to compete success l'u'ilv with the imported coals t;o \v l-m" f.:iMK-vally u-ssd. Water carvir.;vfi v.'ill make the delivery of coal much mors elcstic,. and dealers and user : nf coab will not he tied to ex-■l::n?;>-K nidnv.- L : Heg close f o stations for this one \'ltu-a of coal, but will be able vo concentrate their entire fhopt. I.:■.:.■:t I: ! '.' : iy v.'hSi conrii',^ of the JAiK'.: ! v: ; .:: :5,:"lj;-'."r, r.nc 1 zp;v.\n s-yjv in ii-d-vM V\*i ; -'.i this waterway <-'pon i: ■:.■:-,',]: renmnwould nreanrra-ibly he of .-. chszy :.'•.-.n struetion. and would be i;?od ;:-s ~tovage bins, so that the coal for the

SWBBSHBwiiiim 1 o *-' and t HHV:;.. v ; (i.tubt i'i';ividcd, as | : ;' r .i,! v:i 1 !'';; ci 1 . ..i. : . s?o a;::'- coal, raw n: r.erir.i.i a-.r(i r.<brr go oils could De delivered pi.:ak;iu to whero required. "Both ths Auckland and Onehunga Harbours land themselves to ths cheap reclamation of , large and this cheap water-borne coal would give a greatly increased value to all the vast hasbolu- frontages. "All this would be greatly to the advantage of the Auckland Harbour Board. They would also get a new source of revenue from the wharfages on coal and other Waikato products, and taken altogether would, in my , opinion, make tbe construction of the proposed waterways a perfectly sound commercial venture for the Harboui Board to take up on their own. But while the Auckland Harbour Board would gain immensely, it iB Auckland itself and the surrounding districts, that would derive the greatest benefits from an unfailing supply of cheap water-borne coal. Auckland has been so favoured by Nature, that her progress has been rapid,, but till now she ha? never seriously considered how best to avail herself of one of Nature's greatest gifts to her tbe ease with which inland waterways can be constructed, and so give to her bnck country both to the ' and south, the great boon of the ■ cheapest means of transportation in i existence, and Auckland not forget that cheap coal will attract industries from a long distance. "Waikato would, of course benefit immensely by having direct watercarriage to and from ocean-going vessels, and a fuller development of her coal and other industries, but in allocating the liability, it must not be forgotten, that never mind how much we may benefit, we can't avoid paying or tribute to Auckland's city, the Auckland Harbour Board and outf railways. , "Last year 93,745 tor.3 of coal were railsd from Huntly to Auckland. A saving of 3s por ton means a total saved of over £14,000, and no one can doubt with Waikato coal 3s per ton cheaper, and a larger supply from the two large mines that will Lave coal on the market—one in six months and the other in about a year, not to mention other companies that cuesp carriage would indues to start —that this amount will soon be doubled, as it is an open secrpt that ths company now working has not been able •to anything like supply tbe demands Auckland has made on it for some timp past. These canals cannot be made in a day, and it does not seem unreasonable to estimate that by the tima the two canals wuold be completed the demand and supply would have again doubled, especially if the Waikatn-Manukau canal were made first This would mean, 5ay,400,000 tons a y.ear, but to make sure divide it.in half, and reckon on 200,000 tons by water; this would leave a 13rge amount to go by railwhera it paid owing to local conditions to pay 3a par ton more for their coal. Taking 200,000 tons as a reasonable quantity to expect to pass through the canals when completed, the saving on present freight costs would be £30,000. "Coal is the largest source of heavy freights', but there are many others. Take Aucklands' great want—a hardwearirig road metal. On both sides of the Waikato, a sho't distance above where the canal would leave that great river, thee are enormous deposits of basalt. One of the quarries opened cut shows it in its original prisma; in other deposits, at any rate on and near the surface, the age 3 have worn off the angles. This stone is rot new to AucKland, as the stone sets alongside most of the tramway lines are of this basaltic rock, and anyone can see the great deference in wearing qualities between this and the metal used on the streets. Auckland has been looking for a decent ro ®d metal ever since it existed, and the Waikato can supply it in unlimited quantities right alongsids the waterway, and owing to its peculiar and characteristic occurrence in columns of pentagonal prisms it will be very cheap to quarry. Enormous deposits of this stone have been . exposed by the sea south of the Waikato heads, and a phoiogranh of the basalt columns there— rivalling the celebrated Fingal cave district in the Scotch Hebrides —would show what enormous deposits Auckland has close at hand if only a couple of small ditches were dug. "Glean river sands are another or Auckland's requirements. Great deposits? of this sand in varying degrees of fineness are available close to where the canal parts company from the river. I have seen this sand being handled on steamers for shipment by rail at Mercer. Another large possibility is bricks. The Huntly firebricks have already made a great name for [themselves right throughout the Dominion. A large business is beirg done in them, and, given cheap carriage, in time no doubt an export trade would he created. It is well known that the Huntly fire claya were one of the strong points of the Russell syndicate, and it was then stated that a satisfactory fire-brick was one of the pressing wants of the west coast: of North and South America. Besides the Huntly firebricks, we have the possibilities of the ordinary brick made from the well-distributed Huntly clays, which would pivf Auckland a chance to use iJ, rhr.i- 13 ST:id by practical men I J,]" t ! IV.nilV of i U Aut'iciar.d. Be- ; I--- ■ l_U*k pi\>W'f?ilion * : ;r ,jr h::"V (K'jUlpilLl ,•.■::11i>" - 1 , • 11. v\' s ■' i■■ rail- : .V....', vi,, -i .! . _ lii ; i " ... - ' , u -h ! i'. ' ' , -i ;ne

t & I pel;i^wHMj|WßH| t i n i yet rn£u?J*&7n ivfillv Zcai which a considerable imported from England at a very high cost I may mention that a company is being formed to work these deposit, and they anticipate that the proposed canals will help their enterprise considerably. "In the Raglan ond Yvaitomo counties thera are many deposits of limestone, and at present Auckland draws practically all its rich lime from this district by rail. There is also the question of the large water borno deposits of pumice that are already worked in several places nasi' the Waikato river. The largest is the Fn'tn Pumice Company, near Oninswai, and the Pearson Sand Soap Company send away regular shipments of their fine sand to Australia, amounting to over a thousand tons a year, from Hamilton. A big proportion of the calcined pumice sold by the Firth Company is also shipped on sea-going vessels in Auckland, and it ia not unreasonable to expect this trade to go by water if given a chance. "Besides these great natural products of our district there is also the question of our pastoral exports. People say that canals are too Blow for this trade; that is what we learrt when we were boys. We must, however, recognise that the internal combustion engine has altered all this, and while the canal trip to Auckland will never be as quick as the railway, it will still be a vastly quicker trip than the old horse-drawn barge. The Waikato is an unsettled district in comparison with what it will be in the near future —it is going to be the paradise of the small farmer. Many people say that the waterways will never be used for cur butter and frozen meat, etc. I would not like to say so; the managers of our butter and other companies are shrewd, keen, business men, and the possibility of putting their produce on board clean, insulated barges, which would go straight though without handling to the ship's side, if, as there should be, also a saving in cost, would, lam sure appeal, to them strongly. We must not forget that we are a verv young country, our industries have not yet really settled into their proper places; at present we are taking just what we can get easily and letting it go at that.

™ "This report is longer than 1 intended it to be when I started, and I have confined myself to the big line 3 of outward freight; but outside of the lines that I have touched on there are many smaller ones—that in the aggregate wpuld in time amount to a great volume of freight—such as farm produce, and also the shipment of cattle, Bheep and lambs by water, as is done in mnay other districts, not to mention other industries, not yet thought of. There is also the great extents of the Raglan and Waikato counties that are at present more or less served by water carriage on the river or on its many tributaries, many of which only want a moderate outlay to far extend thsir present navigable length. The settlers so situated, besides getting their produce away, and their goods and manure in cheaper than their competitors on the raPway, would no doubt, as timn goes on, have their motor boats, and be able to take their wives and families by boat to Auckland and return with their shopping, independent of all time-tables. There are scores of settlers who are now better served by water than by the railway, and there will be hundreds when the canals are open, as this new cheap connection with a deep sea port will put a new value on the lands on or near a waterway, and enable the owners to produce many lines that they cannot at present touch owing to their positiun. ,

"I have not touched on the back freight. This will not, of course, equal the outward business, but it will still be considerable almost from the start. The gasworks at Hamilton and Cambridge use per annum between two and three thousand tons of sea-borne coal, mora manure is being used every year, and thousands of tons of this would come straight from the ship to the sea, or the depots in the Waikato; and there is nothing surer than that regular freight boats will run carrying all classes of freight from Auculand to the town 3 and settlers on the banks of the Waikato and Waipa rivers and their tributaries. I know of one large Waikato firm who will have a suitable steamer built for their own freighting as Boon as they are sure the canals will go through. "It is hard to grasp the great possibilities of this scheme and what a development it will make in the Auckland and Waikato districts The far-seeing men in the oO'a who laid out and reserved t!v_ WaiternataManukau canal routes, if they wrre now alive would be astonished to find that we had not yet realised the great facilities for water communication that Nature has given us."