RIMUTAKA COAL.
TO THE EDITOR, Sir, —Mr. Samuel Revans, in your paper of to-day. describes some coal, a small scam of which is said to have been found within three miles of Featherston. as “anthracite, or non-bituminous, a valuable description, the discovery of which I have not heard of having been made in New Zealand." Anthracite is produced on cither bituminous or non-bituminous coal by metamorphic action, r.e , by the intrusion of volcanic veins, which produce from either variety a hard coal, non-caking, and, if of good quality, giving out great heat without flame. In Pennsylvania, U.S., the anthracite is described as formed from bituminous coal. (See McFarlane’s “Coal Regions of America," London, 1873.) In the Malvern Hills district, Canterbury, what geologists call “brown" coal is found thu a altered, or metamorphosed, into anthracite. Brown coal is non-caking and non-bituminous. This anthracite is on the property of J. J. Oakdon, Esq., near Lake Coleridge, in the bank of the river bed of the Acheron, a northern tributary of the Rakaia River. It is about fifteen miles (level plain) beyond the terminus of the White Clift's branch of the Rolleston- t Malvern Railway, now nearly completed, which ter- i minus is itself forty-one miles from Christchurch an4-<jf| forty-nine miles from Lyttelton* a slight declivity all* the way from the mines to the sea, excepting the trirtin rise in the Moorhouao tunnel. It is to be hoped the Kimutaka prove valuable. If not, the Malvern Hills’ mines will, ere long, supply coals to the port of Wellington and its inland, dependencies at a price to outbid either the Newcastle or the Westport and Greymouth coalfields. This anthracite coal has been used for many years, with great satisfaction, for household and wool-preparing purposes by Mr. Oakden. It was reported on several years by the analyst in the Geological department hero as contain ing far more “evaporative power” and “fixed carbon” than any other coal in New Zealand. (See Hr. Hector’s “ Geological Reports Relating to New Zea laud, 1805-9.”)—1 am, &c., E. J, Wakefield January 4.
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4302, 5 January 1875, Page 2
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342RIMUTAKA COAL. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4302, 5 January 1875, Page 2
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