MOKAU COAL.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 November 1920, Page 5

MOKAU COAL.

AN UNTOUCHED OUTCROP. ; SOURCE OF CHEAP FUEL. ' Are the enormous deposits of coal which the residents of Mokau say run from that river hack to Huntly really buried behind £IOO,OOO worth of snagging of the Mokau river, or is this statement due to pure ignorance or is it the war cry of interested parties? The president of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce (Mr. E. P. Webster) and Mr. Gordon Fraser, a member of the council, last, week made a pilgrimage to Mokau to investigate, and they come back with enthusiastic reports of the possibilities of cheap coal for Taranaki.

The quality of Mokau coal is well known in (this 'district, and though, through floods, the old mines some years ago were, unfortunately, cut off from steamer communication, it is not generally known that other fields exist about 3.J miles inland from a point situated about fourteen miles up the river. At the kiad invitation of the Mokau Harbor Board the delegates were afforded an opportunity of exploring this field. Leaving Mokau earlv in the morning, they enjoyed to the'full the delightful panorama unfolded of the magnificent hush-clad banks of the Mokau river, which, they say, deserves to he better known to the tourist. The metalling of Mt. Messenger and the bridging of the Mokau river would bring Mokau within two hours' motor run of New Plymouth, when this should be a favored trip.

Describing the impressions of the CQal deposits the delegates report: "Inland from a decayed sawmill runs a tramline, gently rising three miles through an overgrown track with rotten sleepers and precarious culverts to a point where the guide tells us we must take to rougher country for half a mile or so, though be is careful to explain that this littlo slope is a great advantage to the coal, where the full trucks will in the not distant future gather sufficient way to haul up the empty trucks coming back.

"We stumble over a watercourse, the bed of which is all coal, and come out in a little valley in the heart of dense bush. The coal is there right enough —a well-defined outcrop varying from six to eight feet thick, and fifty-five yards long, in a continuous line, while coming back it was found that the seam cropped up in the river at various points for a long distance. "There appears no practical reason why any steamer which can cross the Mokau bar may not steam tip the river to the point that gives the nearest access to this. coal. The Mokau bar is one of the best on this coast, and a vessel drawing about 7 feet can cross with safety. In past years there was always the trouble that a boat had to negotiate both the Waitara and Mokau bars on the same tide, but the difficulty will disappear with a service from New Plymouth, which port may be worked at any time, so that the bar at Mokau may he taken at a time to suit the ship. The delegates were very impressed with the possibilities of this source of cheap coal for Taranaki."

The delegates wish to express thanks for the hospitality of the settlers, specially mentioning Mr. Whitehead (chairman of the Mokau Harbor Board), Mr. McDonald (secretary of the Mokau Harbor Board), and Mr. Gray, the guide.