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NEW ZEALAND
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
(PROVINCE OF NELSON).

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

By His Honor's command,
J. C. RICHMOND, Provincial Secretary.

VOL. XIII. NELSON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1865. No. 7.

Provincial Secretary's Office, Nelson,
February 21, 1865.

HIS Honor the acting Superintendent directs the publication of the following Report for general information.

ALFRED GREENFIELD,
Chief Clerk.

REPORT ON THE COAL-FIELD OF
NEW SOUTH WALES.

Nelson, January 12, 1865.

To the Provincial Secretary, Nelson.

SIR,
In accordance with the instructions conveyed to me in your letter of Nov. 2, 1864, giving directions for Mr. Blackett and myself to examine the "Coal Works of New South Wales, and ascertain how far it is likely the coal in this Province can be worked in competition with the Australian Coal-fields," I beg to report for the information of his Honor the Superintendent, that on Nov. 3rd last, in company with Mr. Blackett, I started for Sydney in the S.S. Otago and arrived there on the 8th, after a passage of a little less than five days.

The next few days we were engaged visiting the Botany Bay Waterworks, from which Sydney is supplied with water, the Patent Slips, Dry Dock, and other engineering works. We also had several interviews with Mr. Adams, the Deputy-Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and Mr. Smalley, the Astronomer, on matters connected with trigonometrical surveys, and other engineering works. We also had several interviews with Mr. Adams, the Deputy-Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and Mr. Smalley, the Astronomer, on matters connected with trigonometrical surveys, &c., &c., but as all those are more under Mr. Blackett's department than my own, I will leave the details to him and proceed at once to give you some account of the Coal-field of New South Wales; partly from my own observations, and partly from information derived from various other sources.

From the researches of Leichhardt, Rev. H. B. Clarke, of St. Leonard's, near Sydney, Messrs. Keene, and Mackenzie, Government Examiners of Coal Mines, and others, it would appear, that almost the whole east coast of Australia from the Tropic of Capricorn to Shoal Haven, in 35° south, (an extent of 12° of latitude) is composed of carboniferous rocks. Its extent into the interior is of course not so well defined, but the same formation is reported by Sir Thomas Mitchell, to exist in the Grampian Mountains west of the meridian of 143°, though whether it continues from the coast so far inland, is, I presume, not yet ascertained; however, there is no doubt that this is one of the largest and most important coal-fields in the world. It contains great numbers of seams of almost every thickness up to 30 feet, and is generally speaking remarkably flat and regular, but broken through in places by basaltic dykes. The coal is of course very varied in quality but generally good; and is at present being worked at several places in this magnificent field, the principal being near Newcastle on the Hunter River, in the neighborhood of Wollongong in the Illawarra district, both in New South Wales; and also near Moreton Bay in Queensland, but as I have only visited the two former districts I will confine my remarks to them.

Being supplied with letters of introduction from Mr. Thomas Topham, Government Inspector of Coal Mines in the Hunter River district, to several gentlemen there; we started from Sydney on the evening of November 15th, in the steamer Morpeth, and arrived at Newcastle early next morning.