THE NEW COAL COMPANY.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1051, 4 March 1873, Page 2

THE NEW COAL COMPANY.

[nelson examinee.] Although lato advices from Sydney lead to the belief that the strike of the colliers at Newcastle is drawing to a close, and that coal will soon again be in abundant supply through the men abandoning their claim to an increase of wages, that should be no reason why efforts to procure for New Zealand a local supply of fuel, not only sufficient for local consumption but for a large and evei-increasing trade with foreign ports. We are glad therefore to see a body of gentlemen, in Wellington, where money and enterprise are more readily found than in Nelson, resolving to form a Company to work one of the coal-fields of this province. An influential meeting was held, on the 14th February, at the office of his Honour the Superintendent, of gentlemen desirous of developing the rich coalfields of our West Coast. It was proposed to form a company, with a capital of £50,000, one-third of the shares to be allotted in Wellington and the other two-thirds in other parts of the colony. We hope these gentlemen will not misunderstand us if we venture to tell them their proceedings are a mistake. They desire to lease the Brunner mine of the Nelson Government. They should do nothing of the kind. With a capital of £60,000 they might open a mine at Ngakawhau, lay down a railway of their own to Westport, possess themselves of superior coal for steam purposes, and have a port for shipment which would admit of a larger class of vessels than can engage in the trade at the Grey, and be fifty miles nearer Cook Strait The advantage* are all in favour of Ngakawhau. We hope the promoters of the company will not turn a deaf ear to our suggestion.