BRUNNERTON AND ITS COLLERIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 200, 24 August 1874, Page 2

BRUNNERTON AND ITS COLLERIES.

Under tbis heading a correspondent supplies the following interesting communication to the G. i?. Argus : — This patrician appellation is fast falling into disuse and being superseded by the less euphonious, but more suggestive one, of coal-pits. This hamlet, village, or whatever designation it is best entitled to, differs in many respects from other places in the Grey Valley. It bas a decided advantage in the situation, inasmuch as it is built upon a foundation of rock, and although reaching down to the river's bauk, is far out of the reach of floods. The rains may descend and the river rise — the Ahaura, Twelve-mile, and Cobden may be washed into the Pacific Ocean — but Brunnerton, secure in its foundation of rock, will still remain. The difference in this mountainenvironed colliery village is still further observable in its surroundings, and will be rendered more apparent when tbe railway and bridge are open for traffic, and tbo different collieries have bad time to perfect their arrangements. Even now it is worth putting one's self to no little inconvenience to see Brunnerton by night, when the snow lies thick on the ground and the fire from the coke ovens throws its glare over the snow lying around you; and across the river high up among the froatcovered trees, a scene is exhibited to the lover of illuminated nature to be seen nowhere iu New Zealand but here. What will be the effect may be imagined, but not easily described, when the fire from a hundred such ovens is belched up into tbe midnight sky; it may suggest to the imagination the idea of some Provincial Pandemonium. There is also a palpable difference in the character and position of the inhabitants of a colliery village. There is none of the migratory element of the collier, attributable, no doubt, to the regular employment and wages obtainable. This enables him to marry, which is done often at a very early age, frequently before the sign's of manhood have begun to bloom upon his cheek; then he obeys implicitly and to the letter the Scriptural injunc- • tion to " increase and multiply," for be multiplies exceedingly. His daily occupation, when contrasted with that of the gold-miner, is certainly most enviable, instead of being compelled to work in all weathers, and most frequently in wet, the* collier in his subterranean workings is indifferent to oil climatic influences. Although Nelson is parsimonious in many things, there is no province in New Zealand where the educational interests of tbe people are so well attended to. or their literary tastes more sedulously cultivated. The large sum expended on the former, and the very respectable grant each year to West Coast libraries testify to this. Brunnerton participates in both these advantages, as the school, and the wellfilled shelves of the library show. Nor is religion unattended to, a Wesleyan Chapel has, for many years, added to the architectural beauty of the place, and, not content with this, religious services are held in the Reading Room, and a Sunday School provides for the requirements of the young. Inseparable fro© Brunnerton is the BRUNNER SCINE. Probably no mine in New Zealand bas created more interest, or been the cause of more prolific results. Legislators have deliberated upon it. Superintendents and Premiers have written volumes about it, and it has been an inexhaustible theme for the airing of Provincial Council eloquence. The tangible consequence of tbis deliberation, correspondence, and eloquence, is the Brunner railway and bridge, and what else time may develope. Harbor works perhaps. It has been visited by nearly all the notabilities of the colony, including the last three Representatives of Royalty, who, attended by the wealth, youth, and beauty of Greymouth, to the number of two or three hundred at a time, have, after exploring its subterranean labyrinths, dined with all security and comfort within a short distance of its low entrance. And when the champagne circulated, the vaulted roof echoed gubernatorial utterances, and the loyal speeches of Mayors and M.H.R.'s; No mine has been more worthy of the attention and enconiums lavished upon it by experts ; some have praised it for one excellence, and some for another, and all bave united in testifying to its unrivalled value. Hitherto, for many reasons, it has not been worked so advantageously as it might bave been, but tbe present lessees, who have only recently come into possession, are about to test its capabilities to the uttermost. Their manager, Mr Elliott, whose Newcastle experience should be of considerable advantage, appears to be pushing on the works most energetically. Among the many visible improvements is a portable engine to be used I for crushing fire-clay for the manufacture of bricks, with which several coke ovens are to be built close to the rail- | way line. The building of the ovens will be proceeded with immediately after the completion of the survey on this side. It may be presumed this will be done at once, as a surveyor and staff have these last few days been distributing pegs impartially all over the neighborhood ; it is even rumored there is one in the parlor of tbe Buck's Head Hotel, but this must be taken with a grain of salt, or more likely with the beer barrel.