COAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 135, 7 June 1872, Page 2

COAL.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir, — Just now there seems to be a deal of "Talk" about coal here, coal there, and coal everywhere, and still there is none to be got. Will you therefore find space for the following extract from a lecture delivered in England in May 1868, four years ago. concerning a mine hardly now spoken of, but which is said to be in the hands of the Colonial Geologist, and worse hands it could not be iv, if we may judge of the future by the past. Under the heading " Coal " Mr. Saunders thus alludes to the Eochfort Coalmine : — ■ "The mountainous side of the islaud not only contains millions of acres of goldbearing land, but also practically inexhaustible and easily-worked deposits of coal, of the very finest quality. One of the seams near the Buller River is tweDty-five feet thick. The only one that ia worked to any extent is one sixteen feet thick that happens to crop out ou the Grey River, about seven miles from its mouth, in a most favorable position for working without any machinery, and to which small barges can bo dragged up the river by horses, and the coal brought down by the current. This coai, as well as that at. the Buller, has been tried by the Admiralty authorities in England, and most favorably reported as equal to the best English coals, and indeed producing less ashes than any of them. Yet the want, of about twelve miles of railway to the mouth of the Buller, which is a tolerably good harbor for vessels under 200 ton?, prevents the development of this great source of wealth and prosperity, although the merchants and Government of New Zealand annually expend a much greater sum than would complete the needed railway in the purchase of coal from England, and a very inferior article from Australia. " This state of things, so unlike the general conduct of British colonists, is caused not so much by apathy as by a too narrow view of their own interest taken by a leading portion of the resident population of the Province of Nelson, the majority of whom are interested in the development of towns and seaports in Blind Bay and on the east coast, and are consequently prone to listen to all sorts of impracticable projects for conveying the coal to the opposite side of the island to that on which it is found." I am, &c, E. T.