WESTPORT JOTTINGS.

Lyell Times and Central Buller Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 263, 6 March 1886, Page 2

WESTPORT JOTTINGS.

Mining news is slack. The claims at work in various parts of the district are not producing anything bearing much upon the share-market, and stocks are on the whole very flat. The Rough-and-Tnmble reefs, as a new locality, -are attracting a little attention, but as the"' road there is not yet completed, it be some time before machinery will be J placed on the ground. The stone is j highly spoken of. I Politics are "dozing," and people here do not seem to bother their heads much , about them. We have- not had a word, : publicly, from our " Mimber " since his ; election, but as lie is a hard-working representative, and has a multiplicity of; public duties to perform, (being always "up to his eyes" in work) h ; s laxity in the " spouting" line is pardonable, though no doubt we will hear of him when the right time comes. There is nothing of a very startling character to chronicle from the metropolis of the Buller Connty, or, I should say, the coalopolis of New Zealand. Trade is dull, public works slack, gold-mining dormant, and the coal trade decidedly lazy—not from any fault of its own, however, (as the mines are prepared to supply much more than the present output) but from over-whelming competition by outi side collieries. The local companies were unsuccessful in securing Government contracts for the current year, and their trade now has to depend mainly upon the quality of the article sent to market. This advantage posse-sed by Westport coal, in the matter of quality, over that from outside mines, both for steam and household purposes, is such as to secure for it a demand at as much as three shillings per ton more than any other coal, but the means at present available for winning it are of too expensive a character to allow the companies to compete successfully and profitably with outsiders. Of course this will be remedied in time, but it must be some years before our "export trade can assume very yast proportions. ( The Harbor Board are slowly moving towards assisting to attain this end. The works necessary to open the quarries for the breakwater and training-walls on the south side of the river are nearly completed. and a small supply of stone is being delivered, but it will be some time before any appreciable progress will be noticeable. A contract will shortly be let to construct a railway along the north side of the Buller river to open quarries to supply stone for the eastern breakwater. This line will take about 12 months to complete ; meanwhile nothing will be done towards advancing the harbor works on this side of the river. Looking at the work alreadv done by our Harbor Board, and that likely to be done during the next twelve months, there does not appear a great " show " for the amount of monev spent. The Board started with ,£150,000 of borrowed money. The works already in hand and about to be let, together with plant, material, &e., will absorb the greater portion of this sum, so that there will really be very little of the loan left to 1 apply to the harbor works proper. As the chance of securing a further loan will depend a good deal upon the result* ! derived from the expenditure of loan No. 1, the judicious outlay of the latter is

a matter oi paramount consideration. That the hoard committed a huu r e blunder in constructing tlie Cape Foulwind railway is universally admitted. But, of course, these little errors are never seen until it is too late. The course Which it is now admitted should haveheen adopted was to have fallen in with the Borough and County, and constructed the Buller bridge; made the line to the Nine-mile; and taken a branch over this bridge and down the south side of the river. The Nin°-raile quarries would then have supplied material for the harbor works on both side- of the river; wlii'e the Bomd'.s share of the cost of building the Buller bridge would have been at most a third of what it has cost to' make the line to Cape Foulwind; leaving the balance available for the harbor works. The Board's procedure has certainly delayed the harbor improvements, ancl it will be found difficult to procure another loan as tilings are going at present. Jaques.