MALVERN HILLS COALFIELD.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1061, 8 April 1873, Page 2

MALVERN HILLS COALFIELD.

Action has been taken in Christchurch to get a railway from that cityconstructed to the Malvern Hills, distant about forty miles, in order to obtain a supply of coals. The character of the coal is, however, not of first quality. A correspondent of the Lyttelton Times gives the following unsatisfactory account of the quality of the coal in question ; " Having procured samples from the Malvern district, I carried them to a common sixteen inch fire grate, set in the ordinary manner. I first placed some paper in the bottom of the grate, afterwards a few chips on the top of the paper, and, filling up the grate with a sample, I set fire to the mass, and the operation was complete. There was very little difference in the burning of any of the samples, and what is said of one applies to all. If you call the stuff operated upon lignite ; why, I say as lignite the samples were pretty good ; but if you insist on callit coal, they were as coal—rubbish. It has a villanous odour, collapses on the least application of the poker, has poor heating powers, and in short I would sooner pay double its price and stick to Newcastle soal."

Another correspondent of the same journal, in replying to the above, says: —

"In January, 1871, I purchased from a person in the Hororata district 21 cwt. of coal from this particular part of the Malvern Hills, agreeing to pay the same price per hundred-weight as I would purchase Sydney Newcastle coal at the railway station, which at that date was 40s per ton. This quantity of coal I carefully tested against a similar quantity of Newcastle coal, with an eight-horse engine, having a fullsized Cornish boiler, and I found, as Mr Bird states, that it had rather a shaley appearance ; but by admixing a certain quantity of water before putting it in the furnace, I found in a short time it caked together, similar to the small coal used by blacksmiths in their forges. I found it to be a much more rapid generator of steam than Sydney coal, but it showed a deficiency as regards its sustaining power. It had, however, this great advantage over Sydney coal, that it did not create anything like the quantity of soot, which Bpeaks greatly in its favor as fuel for multitubular boilers. The auhes were very free from clinkers, which at all times prove very destructive to fire bars."