THE COAL TRADE.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1075, 27 May 1873, Page 2

THE COAL TRADE.

(to the Editor of tie Westport Times.) There appears to be every probability that the Albion Company formed to work the Ngakawhau coalmine will be successfully floated. To render it a commercial success it will be necessary to adopt the best means for conveying the coal to marker. Four different Schemes, to carry out this object, are mentioned in the prospectus, and it would be well to have the merits and demerits of each of them fully discussed. The first is the conveyance of coal by tug-boat and barges from the mine to the Bulletriver. I think it will be evident to all who know the character of the Ngakawhau river, that however advisable it may be to open up a trade in this manner, until more extensive means of trausport are provided it wolild be very ill-judged to cripple the Company's, resources by the expenditure of any large amount of its capital in, what must necessarily be, a iner'e temporary expedient. Another suggestion is the employment of a traction engine to convey the coal along the beach. I do not think that this will recommend itself to any one who knows the very unstable character of our "West Coast beaches. "Where there is firm hard saud one day there will be loose shingle or boulders the next; over which no traction engino or any other vehicle could progress. Again, there would always exist the necessity of running such an engine, With its trucks, &c, at low water, and if, from any cause, a delay occurred on the way, the whole contrivance would probably go to sea, or at any rate would bo wholly lost to the company. I have no great faith in another of the schemes suggested—the construction of a pierhead and harbor works at the Ngakawhau. It is one that might succeed, or might not, but it would certainly be nothing better than an experiment, and a very costly one if it failed. There remains one other scheme to consider—the construction of a tramway, by which I suppose is meant a railway, to the Buller. It would have been better, in my opinion, if the company had definitely fixed on this scheme from the first, as it is the only one which, to local men, promises to develop the coal resources of the district to the fullest extent of which they are capable. It is acknowledged on all sides that, no matter what other schemes might be adopted, it is only from the Buller Eiver that a coal trade can be carried on to Compete with the mines of New South "Wales both in colonial and foreign markets. Would it not then be folly to exhaust the capital of the company in mere experimental works, the cost of some of which it would be hard to estimate until they were completed, when it can be demonstrated what a railway would cost, what freight it would carry, what the working expenses would be, and what profit could to a certainty be calculated on. The capital of the company is amply sufficient to provide the railway and all necessary appliances, and, when completed, the company would be in a position to supply any demand that might ariso. It may bo said that it would take some time to carry out this scheme, and that the shareholders, would expect an earlier return for their investment, but I caa seo no good reason why such an id£a

ohould be allowed to operate against "the construction of the railway, as the delay Would be ultimately to their advantage. It would be a great pity if such a promising bantling were retarded in its progress by the adoption of a treatment insufficient to enable'it to arrive at a vigorous maturity.—l am, &c., Bailway. "Westpbrt, May 23,1873.