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Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 552, 17 February 1858, Page 4

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir.—l am sure I only express the unanimous feeling of the people of this province when I say it is with pleasure they view each commercial and social improvement in our small community so ably advocated and, where nece*cary, corrected by our courteous and enlightened local press. But as the influence ifc exerts is great, and the opinions enunciated so fully appreciated, it is important that these opinions should not, by any act of inadvertency, be allowed to convey an erroneous impression to the minds of the community. Allow me, therefore, to make a few remarks on your article in Saturday's issue on the trial trip of the steamer Planet, in which you make mention of the quality of the coal on board. Any one unacquainted with the matter, taking only a cursory glance at the article in question, would at onpe come to the preposterous conclusion that coal procured from New South Wales was all but worthless. Certainly you say the coal was procured from the surface of a newly opened pit; but in the after part of the sentence the comparison drawn between English and Australian coal is, to say the least, invidious. The N. S. W. coal on board the Planet was not only " inferior coal obtained from a newly-

opened mine,"; ,but the refuse collected from several previoustrips. ■ It'is a well ascertained fact, that some of the mines in N. S. W. yield coal inferior to no other sample procured in any part of the globe. In order to form a correct estimate of its value, we have only to cast our eye along the extensive coast of the Australian continent, and see the expanse of ocean so regularly and successfully traversed by steam ers wholly propelled through the agency of this coal. From Sydney to Moreton Bay, a distance of 700 miles-and to Melbourne, a similar dT B ! tance—there are regular and constant Bteam services, for which nothing but colonial coal is used; and, as far as speed is concerned, we have only to take the Sydney and the Hunt™ River Bteamer ß - r or say the whole Australian fleet, and we will find that they bear no mean comparison with any other steamers afloat Ifc is indeed a generally recognized fact, that in a great measure through the powerful agency of the excellent and extensive coal fields of tffew South Wales, backed by its other natural advafa! Zmi ?i Au? trahftn c°ntineht has not far t& natoni! IBW« the first of European lam more particular in making th eße remarks, as I am aware there are individuals her« who are comparatively ignorant of the respective merits of English and Australian coal, and who go away with the idea that there never was and never can be coal equal to that of England. And why?— Simply because English coal is JEnglith ; or on the principle of Cockney logic, which believes London to be the world and the whole world London. I remain, Sir, your obdt. servant, CRAIG-DHU. Lyttelton, 15th Feb., 1858.