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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4553, 23 October 1875, Page 2

It seems evident from recent advices that the Para Para Coal and Ironworks Company is determined to develops the resources of its property to the utmost. The Nelson Evening Mail of October 19th has an interesting article concerning the progress of the company’s operations, in the course of which it says;—“The importance of the Para Para Company’s works not only to the district in their immediate vicinity, but to the province, and even the colony at large, is so generally admitted that an occasional notice of their progress cannot fail to prove interesting to our .readers. Several months have elapsed now since last we referred to them at length, and during that time the company has not been idle, as has been proved by the result, several vessels laden with coal from the mine having lately entered pur port. The wharf at which the coal is shipped has just been completed, and-is a fine substantial structure, 900 ft. in length, with ten bunkers, each capable of holding fifteen tons. The contractor was Mr. Grange, and the manner in which he has performed the work is creditable to himself and highly satisfactory to his employers. The tramway from the wharf to the mouth of the tunnel, a distance of 2A miles, has been well and faithfully laid down, and does its work well. The main tunnel is now over 700 ft. in length, and a permanent iron way suitable for horse traffic will soon be laid the whole of that distance. In its course it cuts five distinct seams of coal, varying in thickness from eighteen inches to three feet. On the main seam two levels have been driven at right angles, that is to the north and south, each of them 400 feet in length,, with the necessary headings and airlevels, thus securing a current of air from the mouth of the tunnel to the outcrop of the seam on the face of the hill. The mine as now opened out shows a large quantity of coal, and the main levels as they are extended will open up more workable ground every week. The coal now being mined is in larger blocks than ■ that brought to market lately, and the output depends entirely upon the number of miners employed. At present there are only about a dozen at work, each of them cutting about 1A tons per day, but the mine in its present condition is capable of affording employment to between thirty and forty. The population in the vicinity of the company’s works, consisting chiefly of those employed in the mine, on the tramway, &c., is rapidly increasing, and buildings are being erected all along the side of the tramway from the wharf to the mine, but the want of accommodation is still very pressing, and the company are about .to build more cottages for their employes, six of which are now under contract. It is gratifying to find that the educational wants of their children are fully and practically recognised by the residents in the district, who are setting an example that might well be followed by other small communities in out-of-the-way localities. A fund for the purpose of erecting a commodious schoolroom has been subscribed among themselves, and the building is now approaching completion, and there are thirty children ready at once to commence their school duties. Near the mine a kiln has been erected for burning the lime that will be necessary for building the furnaces for smelting the iron, which will shortly be commenced under the supervision of Mr. Jones, the builder of the Taranaki furnaces, who has for some time past been engaged in selecting clays fx-om various parts of the company’s propex-ty for brickmaking. He has, we understand, discovered several kinds, from each of which 1000 bricks will be made with a view to testing their respective values. When that is ascertained, tenders will at once be invited for making the bricks, of which at least 600,000 will be required. It is gratifying that everything is progressing well and satisfactorily, and we sincerely ti'ust that the company will, in wox-k----ing both the coal and the iron, meet with the full measure of success that their enterpx-ise so richly deserves.” The call due on the 15th inst. should be paid to secure a vote at the annual meeting on the 24th proximo.

The Australasian is admittedly the foremost weekly paper in these colonies, and it has deservedly obtained its admitted position. But unless it mends itself in regard to its New Zealand information, it will in this respect get the reputation of being very deficient. Lately a series of sketches have appeared in our Melbourne contemporary under the heading “New Zealand as it is.” Readers of those sketches acquainted with the subject with which they profess to deal cannot avoid thinking the heading a misonmer. It should more appropriately be “NewZealandasit isn’t.” The sketches bristle with errors, but in the very last the writer takes oomp’acent credit for his general accuracy, and corrects a trivial error in regard to the contractor for the Lyttelton tunnel. In that same sketch, however, the distance between Dunedin and Christchurch is put down as 299 miles. We have measured the distance on an official map, and with the utmost stretch cannot get within 100 miles of this. It would be easy to point out similar inaocuraces throughout the articles. But it is not alone in these sketches that the Australasian disseminates erroneous information concerning New Zealand matters. It has got an own correspondent in this colony, who professes to date his letters from Wellington, but who, for the credit of this city, we would fain hope writes from somewhere else. In his last letter he gives an account of the political situation on the compromise over the Abolition Bill which stamps him as a master of ponderous fiction. He gives a number of political prophecies, too, after the maimer of one possessed with ignorance. In these the writer comes out with an assumption of knowing everything but the fact that his prophecies have one and all turned out failures, shows that his assumption is unfounded. His literary style, too, is marked by elegance and originality. He calls the Eingarooraa a “specimen of naval architecture." Such a man as this would write of a pigstye as a “porcino habitation.”