KAKAHU MINERALS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1385, 29 August 1885, Page 3

KAKAHU MINERALS.

A meeting of persons interested in the development of the Kakaha minerals was held yesterday afternoon, in the Temuka Road Board office.

Mr John Talbot presided, and said several were present who were old hands in the district. Mr Binns reccommended that a Mr Nimmo, a miner, should be employed to open up the seams so that a mining engineer might be got to make a survey of the district. Mr Nimmo wanted £6 per week and all expenses paid, and they thought it too much. The question was whether it would be better to follow the seams discovered or sink for new ones.

Mr Butler said be had been prospecting there in 1868. They saw the strata in the commencement of that year, but when they went up to it at the end of the year it was covered up by the flood. They • fossicked on either side of the river, and found a little outcrop but no solid stuff. They took the correct angle, and sunk farther up on higher ground to the depih of 100 feet. At 10 or 15 feet they met water, and had to bale night and day but found nothing but loose stuff. The seams dipped to the east, and they worked to catch them. They found very little coal. Had (he fault continued in this direction they would not have misssd it, but these faults must lead to a proper bed. They had to give up for want of funds. There were two seams which gave similar camples to those he had seen that day. He thought there were two separate seams having the same dip. These were on Meredith’s, and were the best indications he had seen. He had no doubt but that coal would be found there, but the question was whether it was sufficient to pay, and his candid opinion was that coal superior to that already found was there. He would rather sink in hills, where the natural strut as could be seen, if an outcrop could be found, than trust to the faults that were to be found in the level. Mr Shie r s agreed that if coul were found on the flat it would not pay owing to water. Mr Sherratt was not present when the seams were seen in the river. After they had sunk 72 feet they got a seam of excellent coal three inches think, and like Cannel coal. He differed from driving into the hills. He had been in Meredith’s drives, and the seam did not improve in the least. This was where McDougal and Walker were working. In the drive at the Kakehu Bush the coal did not improve. His opinion was that there was not sufficient crushing weight unless the seam dipped. Ho knew a mine in England where the outcrop was inferior to Kakahu, and the coal did not improve until they had gone done 365 yards, when a seam of nine feet was found. If a shaft could be sunk about 300 feet he believed coal would be found. His idea was to bore. There would be no difficulty with the water if the coal could be found.

The Chairman : If you get coal in water it will fall asunder.

Mr Sherratt: There is very little coal in England that will not moulder down except Cannel coal.

Mr Barker said if they got coal for engines and factories they would be satisfied. If they got coal in the hill sso that they could show people it was there he had no donbt but that a company could be got up, but they must show something fitst of all. Mr Bowie, of Timaru, who bad been taken over the ground by Mr Barker on that day, said he had been at coal all bis life. He had worked for 25 years in a place called Coalsythe, in Scotland, which was as like Kakahu as any place he had ever seen. Coal was at first found rising out of the ground, but of such inferior quality that no one thought it would pay, till a man took a lease of the land and worked it, and now there were over 1000 men working there. The coal was not good until they got down 175 fathoms, when they met with a splendid seam of coal. He was of opinion that the seams in the hills would not do, and it would be better to sink down. He believed good coal might be got at a depth of from 60 to 100 feet. He was confident good coal was to be found there if sunk for.

Mr Shiers was of the same opinion as those who suggested to sink, but he was afraid it would be too expensive. On that account he thought it was better to try what could be got out of the hills first, because in his opinion the coal was of small importance compared with other materials found in the same place. Mr Barker: We must have coal before we can do anything with other minerals. Mr Sbierai That is the reason why I suggest lhecheape>t cuise. A long conversation ensued, the chief point of which was whether a drive should be put into the hill, a shaft sunk, or a boring machine obtained. No decision on either of these points was arrived at, but. it was agreed that Messrs Bowie and Butler should meet some of the promoters on the ground next Friday, with the view of agreeing to some definite course. The meeting then adjourned.