The Westport Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1869.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 548, 28 August 1869, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1869.

A cobeesponbent who takes a lively and, we are sorry to say, somewhat exceptional interest in the development of the valuable coalfield which is well and widely known to exist, and as yet only to exist, as one of the resources of this district, has sent to us some information of an interesting character in connection with his pet project. This information consists of gleanings from the Home papers and from the published prospectuses of the firm or company who have the credit of introducing, and of reducing to practical working, what is commonly known as the Wire Eope Tramway. His estimate is that this simple system of transport, of which our readers have, no doubt, already heard, is a system which might with advantage be adopted in the working of the Mount Kochfort coalfield, or, rather, in the conveyance of its produce to its natural place of shipment, Westport. As most people know who know anything of the circumstances, the chief obstacle to the opening of this coalfield is the comparative costliness of providing the requisite facilities for the conveyance of the coal from the pit-mouth to the port. Some steep gradients have to be overcome, and we shall charitably suppose that to that condition is greatly duo the hesitancy which is exhibited by the local or foreign speculator in undertaking a work which, in other particulars, presents a fair field for profitable investment. The cost of such requisite plant as powerful stationary engines, iron tramways, and the rest, may, indeed, be very justifiably censidered to be a damning difficulty in the way of an otherwise promising enterprise. "With that difficulty removed or reduced to a reasonable minimum, it is quito possible that there would soon bo found the necessary capital and skill to tap the mountain of coal which now stands untouched, and which, of all the physical features of the district, is the one feature upon which its future most depends. The Wire Eope Tramway, plaything as it may appear to some, really seems to possess the peculiarities by which the difficulty in this case may bo most easily met. We do not mean to say that it is a system of tramway which can, with advantage, if at all, be substituted for the ordinary tramway over such a stretch of country as that inintervening between the Waitnongoroa and the outlet of the Buller. It appears to be chiefly adaptable for short and difficult distances. By the inventor's own account its purposes, or some of the several purposes to which it may be devoted, is to " convey mining produce, such as coal, to the nearest port, river, or railway," and to " act as a feeder to and extension of railways, particularly in new countries." Serving these purposes it would serve all that is here 'wanted, and, judging by the figures furnished, it would do so at a cost comparatively small. What we understand to be mainly required in the case of the Mount Kochfort coalfield is the means of communication between the mine and the level land upou which a tramway of the common kind could be laid. While the ordinary tramway would not be dispensed with along the line of even country, this tramway of suspended wire would take its, place as literally the connecting link between it and the mine ; bridging—as in a sense it might be said to do—the spurs of .ranges or ravines which are ingredients in the gradients to be overcome. . With regard to the cost of this.novel and peculiar tributary power, we are told that, at the price calculated for construction in England, a single rope line to mrry 50 ton 3 a day in i cwt. boxes, would cost £250 per mile, while lines carrying 100 or 200 tons, in 1 cwt. and 2 cwt. boxes, would cost respectively £4OO and £SOO per mile, the cost, of course, increasing with the increase of weight to be conveyed. Naturally in such a situation as the West Coast of New Zealand the cost would be enhanced by freight charges, surveys, and sundry similar preliminaries, but even then the outlay would be email in proportion to the outlay on the . only other available and old-

fashioned means of carriage, and it Las to be remembered that these estimates include rolling-stock and steam-power complete for the commencement and continuance of the work. As there is at present in Auckland an agent of the company by whom the adoption of this practical invention is being promoted, and as Mr "Wrigg, C.E., is also there, we imagine that it is not an unnatural suggestion for us to make when we suggest that the Nelson Government would do wisely were they to solicit Mr "Wrigg to supplement his already elaborate report on the Mount Kochfort railway by an opinion based upon an inspection of the working model which at Auckland is now accessible, and upon the knowledge which he has of the conditions under which it would, in this district, be practically applied. If only as an item of interesting reading matter, we shall give at another time a description of the mechanism of the " AVire Kope Transport System" to which we have thus referred.