80

Monkwearmouth, the deepest colliery in the north of England.

The lowest seam worked is 4 feet 6 inches thick, and is 1,740 feet below the surface. The first 660 feet from the bottom, the coal is brought up an inclined plane, 1,400 yards long, rising 1 in 6 (by means of a stationary engine at the top of the shaft, 120 horse-power). It is then raised the remaining 1,080 feet up a perpendicular shaft in the usual way. The engine draws 30 waggons, each containing 8 cwt., or 12 tons of coal in each train, up this inclined plane; the average being 1,000 waggons, or 400 tons, in 12 hours. The workmen also pass up and down during this time, from 60 to 80 in a train.

Thus 400 tons a day can be drawn up from a seam 4 feet 6 inches thick, 1,740 feet below the surface. At the Buller it is required to bring coal from a seam 8 feet thick down from an elevation of 1,824 feet.

As to the capital required, I can only state that the railway is the only expense which need be calculated on. For deep sinking, pumping, and drawing, engines and other expensive mining items, necessary in working under water-level, would not be needed here for many years. As I have before stated, £500 would be sufficient to put the seam at Coal Brook Dale in working order, if the railway was completed.

Of the cost of the railway I cannot form an idea, but probably £70,000 or £80,000 would be needed, say £100,000. And supposing that 100,000 tons a year could be disposed of, the following statement will show a satisfactory result.

Rough estimate of the expense of putting a ton of coal on board ship at the Buller. Capital expended being £100,000 and the demand 100,000 tons a year.

Or 8s. 2d. per ton.

Probably 100,000 tons a year would not be required for the first year or two, therefore the expense per ton would be increased. But in a few years there is no doubt that the demand would be enormously increased. I have been told that in Melbourne alone upwards of £200,000 is annually paid for coal.

I have heard that a prejudice exists in the minds of some people, against the introduction of foreign capital, and that it would be better to try to do everything ourselves, and have all the profits, even if we were longer about it. In this case that is impossible, and to attempt it, is to grasp at the shadow and loose the substance.

But I think the more capital we can introduce into the Colony the better, if we can pay the interest and also provide a sinking fund for the extinction of the debt. In the present case even supposing the whole £100,000 to be borrowed, and the whole of the interest at 10 per cent. to be sent out of the Colony, which is extremely improbable; still we have £31,000 a year put in circulation in the Province without calculating anything for the over-sea carrying trade, which might to a considerable extent be in the hands of Nelson ship owners. But this is a commercial question, and out of place in a mining report.

I have neglected to state, that I think it would be very desirable, by boring or other means, to endeavor to find a workable seam of coal on the edge of the plateau near station 10.

Before closing this report, I would like to impress on your Honor the necessity of having correct and minute plans of all mining operations. These plans should show as minutely as possible the natural features of the surface, by contour lines, or otherwise, representing the relative heights.

The workings of each seam should be shown in the same way; and records kept of all sinkings, boring, and drivings, showing sections of the strata in various positions, and supplying other valuable information. These records ought also to embrace everything of interest connected with the mine, such as blowers of gas or feeders of water being met with in such and such places.

These plans and records are very easily kept up if they are commenced with the actual working, but it is impossible to supply them afterwards when shafts are closed, old workings filled with water, or fallen in.

The want of such plans and records of old workings has caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of property, and hundreds, nay perhaps thousands of lives; and is a source of constant expense and anxiety in districts where old workings are known to exist.

On this point allow me to quote a paragraph from "Dunn, on the Coal Trade," giving a slight sketch of its history in the North of England.

"1815.—In this year, an inundation took place in Heaton Colliery, whereby nearly 90 lives were lost. The waters of Old Heaton and Jesmond Collieries, which had been abandoned for upwards of seventy years, were thus let in, owing to the want of plans showing the extent of them afterwards. The exploring drifts of this colliery had been subjected to the process of boring for many years; but in this instance some inadvertence had taken place which caused the disaster, affording a melancholy argument for the necessity of recording plans."

In conclusion I regret that my observations have been so limited, owing to the circumstance, that I was obliged to leave on account of bad weather, before I had finished what I intended to do, thus leaving much of the work incomplete.

With regard to Mokihinui, I can give no more information than what is contained in my report of May 12th, except a small section of the strata at the coal seam, it is roughly taken, and may not be quite correct.

I would have given the section in that report, but as it was written unexpectedly, I had left my note-book at the camp.

Section of Strata at Mokihinui—

This lower grit forms the bed of the river, so it is impossible to know its thickness.

Dip to N.W. or N.N.W., about 10°.

I cannot close this report without congratulating the Province on the possession of one of the most valuable Coal-fields I ever saw, and commanding a harbor like the Buller, which make it immediately available. It is not too much to expect that