Untitled

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2943, 26 May 1891, Page 2

In refer#ace to the statement made to the Miuister of Minos when recently at tho Thames •' that the price of coal had not yet gone down, though the strike was over, and also that it is cheaper, for mining purposes, to obtain coal from Newcastle, than to purchase it in this colony, our readers will remember that in reply tho Hon. E. Seddon expressed tho opinion, that this result was largely due to the monopoly in coal mines, and that ho would do his utmost to put an end to this speculation in coal lands still belonging to the Crown. In this connection a gentleman residing ac Greymouth but lately on a visit to Waikato, and who is thoroughly conversant with mining matters on the West Coast, informed us that extending from Greymouth as far North as the Buller Eivor, a distance of over fifty miles, tho central range is studded with coal seams varying from five to forty feet in thickness exposing an inexhaustible supply of the best coal for ages to come. These seams could be worked upon the cheapest principles, no sinking boing required. Yet this valuable area is locked up in large coal leases, unquestionably for the purposo of speculation and to holp t.lio poworful coal monopoly which exists on tho West Coast. It was to theso coal lands that Mr Soddon was alluding in his remarks at the Thames, and bearing in view the immense importance which an abundant and cheap supply of coal is to almost every branch of human industry, few will be found to object to the principle the Minister of Mines has laid down, that coal leases, must be fully worked, or the

holders will bo compelled to step out and make room for those who aro prepared to do so.