New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, February 22, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 580, 22 February 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, February 22, 1851.

In our present number will be found two important and interesting documents extracted from yesterday’s Government Gazette, namely, Mr. Weld’s account of his recent journey between Lyttelton and Cape Campbell, and Capt. Stokes’s report on the coal of New Zealand. Mr. Weld’s account of his successful attempt to explore an inland communication between the Wairau and the newly established settlement of Canterbury, interesting from its description of the country through which he travelled, becomes Stillmore valuable, from his having - ascertained beyond all doubt that an easy communication does exist through the centre of the island, and that the country through which he passed is well adapted to pastoral pursuits ; and there is every reason to believe that in the course of a few years these disi tricts will be occupied by settlers with their flocks and herds, increasing the wealth of the colony, and by the amount of their wool swelling its annual exports. The other document to which we refer is the report made by Capt. Stokes of H. M/s Steamship Acheron, on the different specimens of New Zealand coal submitted to him for testing their respective qualities and their fitness for fuel for the purposes of steam navigation. This report, though unfavourable, is by no means conclusive in its results, since the different samples of New Zealand coal submitted to experiment were procured from surface seams. The question is one of such great importance to the colony, not only as connected with steam communication now on the eve of being introduced into New Zealand, but as affecting the daily consumption of fuel by its inhabitants, particularly in districts, as in the Canterbury settlement, where there is a general scarcity of wood, that measures should be taken, i by sinking shafts where the coal is found, for ascertaining the quality of the coal beneath the surface, and its application to the purposes above referred to. We must either be in a condition to supply ourselves with what in the present advanced state of civilization may be called one of the first necessaries of life, or draw our supplies from Sydney. If no other means are to be found of obtaining a satisfactory solution of this question, it ought to be attempted by subscription, since to procure from New South Wales all the coal required for New Zealand would prove a serious drain on its resources. To our thinking, the successful working of a good coal mine in New Zealand, where a plentiful and cheap supply of fuel may be obtained, would more advance its best interests than the discovery of the richest gold mine.