MORE COAL DISCOVERIES.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1057, 25 March 1873, Page 2

MORE COAL DISCOVERIES.

The recent public discussion at Westport, as to the best means o attaining the speedy opening up of the Mount Eochfort coalfield, has incited further search for seams in various localities, long since known as coalbearing, but wherein up to the present time, little or no inducement has offered to encourage systematic exploration. It has been rumoured for many days past that a seam, variously stated at from twenty to thirty feet thick had been laid bare at the Waimangaroa, and on Saturday last a bagful of coal specimens were brought therefrom, and which have attracted much attention. The coal is almost precisely similar to that obtained from the Ngakawhau mine ; if anything a little more compact in texture, and of a more glossy or jet like blackness. It is found close to the river edge, on the north bank of the Waimangaroa, and in close proximity to the gold mining claim of Sims and party ; distant in a direet line about six or eight miles from Westport, and being about two miles inland from the sea beach. The seam as !yet traced is six feet thick and is easily accessible, but subject to inundation from freshes in the river, a defect which the prospectors state may be easily remedied by the use of inexpensive pumping machinery. A party of speculators visited the locality yesterday, and are sanguine that it will prove a good thing. Whether their anticipations will be realised as to the immediate value of the discovery awaits further proof, but not the slightest doubt can be expressed that the discovery of this seam at the Waimangaroa affords another convincing argument that the sooner

the Ngakawhau and Westport Hailway line is commenced the better. It will not only connect two important points, bat it will prove the trunk line to a number of short feed lines bringing down coals and other mineral treasures all along the route, the value and extent of which are beyond all present calculation. Besides the discovery at the Waimangaroa another has been made nearer Westport and possibly in a more accessible position, being in facb near to the new Nine Mile Track, now in course of survey. We reported a few issues back that excellent coal had been brought in from the Cascades, and that the seam there was presumedly an extension of the Bochfort coal measures. A proof of the correctness of this surmise has been now given by the discovery of an extensive outcrop of splendid coal a short distance inland from about the neighborhood of the Snag and Sluice Box Falls. Mr Martin, of Westport, has had some men employed of late in following up traces of coal known to exist there for some years past, and the result is that they have come across a seam of excellent black coal, comparing favorably in every respect with samples obtained from the seams further to the northward.

The importance of these discoveries needs little comment. Despite all that has heretofore been said, even by learned geologists, that the Buller coal measures were of little extent, proof positive is now given that they exceed all previous discoveries in New Zealand. Taking the points of exploration, namely, the Cascades, Snag Falls, Bochfort, Waimangaroa, Ngakawhau, and Mohikinui, the coal has been traced, in a direct line, for nearly forty miles, and the Beams along that line exceed in depth and extent all previous conception.