LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1364, 11 July 1885, Page 2

LOCAL INDUSTRIES.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I am pleased to see that steps are being taken by a number of gentlemen in the Geraldine and Temuka districts to devolope the minerals, coal, that are known to exist in the Kakahu district, and I have no doubt the promoters were highly pleased with a letter from Mr Shiers bearing specially upon the way and manner that the coal or lignite should be tested and worked in order to compete with other mines known to be paying very fair dividends on the West Coast of this Island. But it appears that the promoters up to the receipt of this letter bad thought of boring in the first place, to test the matter. Now, Sir, it becomes a matter of the greatest importance as to the step to bo taken first: whether to drive into the hill side where the lignite crops out of the earth, or bore for it on the flat. Certainly Mr Shiers’ suggestion to drive into the hill side is the readiest, and probably would be the cheapest, but the next question to be considered is ; has not this been done by a well known person residing in the immediate locality with the result that the seam of lignite does not improve in the slightest degree. And why is this? If I would not be considered out of place in offering an opinion upon such a matter, I should say that the hills where the lignite crops out are not high enough and the weight above the seam is not sufficient to consolidate the lignite. If a fair sample of lignite can be found that dips at a moderate angle Into the earth, then Ishould suggest that the seam should be tested by boring a sufficent distance from where it crops out to strike the seam at about 200 to 250 feet deep, and if the promoters were successful in hitting the seam they vrould find a very fair sample of coal, which could be worked equally as readily and cheaply down a shaft as by pulling it up’an incline, for the water would prove no great drawback if a good sample of coal was found, any more than it is in England, And it so happens that my theory is borne out by certain information that I received years ago from Mr George Butler (of Pleasant Point) and Mr John Patrick (of Kakahu), for they told me that they worked in a trial shaft prospecting for coal in the same locality, and that in sinking they cut through a very thin seam of coal very mueh like the Kannel, or Kennel,Jcoal in England. Therefore, I trust that the promoters will, if they think it worth while, communicate with these two gentlemen, who, doubtless, will afford valuable information, for two or three seams of lignite at that time could be seen clearly in the Kakahu river just below where a Mr Duncan lives in a white house at the entrance into the gorge. Apologising for writing at such length, hut the importance of the matter is I think a sufficient excuse, —I am, etc., A Well Wisher. Kakahu, Ju'y 8, 1885.