83

Good Land in
Valley of Innan-
gahua, 36,000
Acres.

Valley of Little
Grey, 38,000
Acres.
Valley of Big
Grey, 60,000
Acres.
Total good
Land, 152,000
Acres.

152,000 acres
does not show
all the good Land.

Flat Land,
small proportion
of Land propo-
sed to be given.

Value of the
152,000 Acres.

Land not pay
for Construction
of Railway
Mines and Mine-
rals must be
included.

Mineral wealth
enormous.

Coal of Supe-
rior Quality
abounds. Gold
is found.

Value of Coal.

Coal alone
would pay for
Construction of
a Railway.

76. The valley of the Inangahua possesses some
    excellent flat land; the surface soil is rich
    and rests upon a porous subsoil of mixed clay and
    gravel. The facilities for drainage are therefore all
    that can desired, and the district is well watered.
    The available flat land in this valley will probably
    reach 36,000 acres, independent of many hills quite
    capable of cultivation.

77. 38,000 acres may be available for agricultural
    purposes in the valley of the Little Grey.

78. The valley of the Big Grey may have 60,000
    acres of flat land.

79. The total flat land may, therefore, be taken at
    152,000 acres.

80. It must be understood that this estimated
    quantity of flat land, does not include all that exists
    in the valleys named, but only that which would
    probably come within the limit of the land proposed
    to be given to the company constructing the line.

81. Informs a small proportion of the 2,070,000 acres
    proposed to be given to the company, and does not
    by any means represent all the land that will be
    valuable. Large portions of the land that may be
    called hilly will, after a time, be fit for pastoral pur-
    poses, but to what extent this kind of land exists I
    am not prepared to say, as in a timbered country,
    to estimate the extent of the lands suitable for either
    agricultural or pastoral purposes is attended with
    difficulty and some uncertainty. I think, however,
    the gross quantity of flat land I have named will be
    found to exist, but some quite inadequate to the extent
    of your Honour's Government will be enabled to furnish
    this with some degree of accuracy.

82. Now supposing this 152,000 acres of land
    was sold at £2 10s. an acre (a price it would easily
    fetch if a railway were constructed), and the re-
    mainder of the land left unsold for the present; the
    proceeds from this would be £380,000—an amount,
    I think, quite sufficient to adequately cover the cost
    of a railway of about 207 miles long.

83. It is, therefore, clear to my mind that the
    10,000 acres of land per mile proposed to be given
    in lieu of a guarantee of interest to a company con-
    structing the line, would not be sufficient induce-
    ment unless the mines and minerals are likewise
    included.

84. If this were done the extent of wealth waiting
    collection, but which is now locked up in a range
    of country extending say nine and a-half miles on
    each side of the proposed line where public lands
    exist, would be found enormous, saying nothing of
    the value which the limestone, timber, and building-
    stone must ultimately realize.

85. The country abounds with coal of very su-
    perior quality, and in seams of unusual thickness,
    some of which are ten, and others sixteen feet, while
    gold-diggers are now at work on the Rivers Owen,
    Buller, Matakitaki, Inangahua, Grey, Arnold, and
    many other rivers of less magnitude.

86. I have endeavoured to show upon the "sketch
    maps" the various points where I have myself ob-
    served gold-diggers at work.

87. As regards the value of the coal, it is more
    the business of a mining surveyor to define it than
    mine; but that coal of a very superior quality does
    exist in vast fields, there can be no doubt whatever,
    for it crops out, and is visible to the eye.

88. Putting the proceeds of railway traffic, as well
    as miners' rights, out of the question, the profits
    of from coal mines on the Buller and Grey would, I
    have no doubt, pay the interest upon the capital

required to construct the line, less proceeds of land
sales; and the undertaking would be a source of
profits; but to prove what I advance, it is as well to
go into some details.

89. On carefully examining the Brunner mine, on
    the River Grey, I found the thickness of the seam
    to be at least sixteen feet, so that if this thickness of
    seam extends throughout, the quantity of coal in
    the 1,280 acres now leased to a company, would
    yield about 27,000,000 tons of coal. The mine,
    however faultless now, may not continue to be so,
    though this does not appear to be probable; and if
    we take one-fourth of this estimated quantity, it
    will be a very safe and moderate computation, which
    gives 6,760,000 tons of coal to be won.

90. The mine is self-drained; no engines or
    pumping apparatus are used, or necessary to be
    used. The roof is grit, and self-sustained; and the
    short distance of six and a-half miles, which the
    mine is from Cobden and Greymouth, should allow
    the coal to be sold at a much lower rate than the
    company now charge.

91. The charge for coal, put on board at Cobden
    wharf, is, as far as I can learn, twenty-five Coal at Cobden
    shillings per ton, which is made up in the following
    manner:—

Getting, and other charges ... £0 6 6
Boating ... ... ... 0 14 6
Profit ... ... ... 0 4 0

Total ... ... ... £1 5 0

92. A glance at the cost of water-carriage, for less Carriage of
    than seven miles, will show how much both the coal excessive.
    company and public suffer from this costly item, for
    there can be no doubt but that, if a railway existed
    from the mines to the wharf at Cobden, the cost of
    carriage would be reduced to one shilling per ton;
    so that, leaving the other items undisturbed, coal
    should be delivered at Cobden at eleven shillings
    and sixpence per ton.

93. It is, however, known that, from various causes,
    the cost of getting exceeds what it ought to be, and
    there is every reason to believe that the coal may be
    sold at Cobden at 10s. per ton, made up thus:—

s.
Getting and other charges ... 5
Carriage ... ... ... 1
Profit ... ... ... 4

Total... ... ... 10

94. The coal found at Grange's Point on the
    Buller is about 121 miles from the town of Nelson;
    that from Mount Rochfort on the Buller (including,
    say, seven miles branch to coalfield) is about 142
    miles from the port of Nelson; while the Brunner
    mines on the Grey are about 172 miles from the
    port of Nelson.

95. Now, as the company could coal their engines
    at first cost and free of carriage, the cost of haulage
    of coal per ton would not, I believe, exceed 1d. and
    4-10ths. This amount would include locomotive
    expenses of all kinds, maintenance of permanent way,
    repairs of coal waggons, and office expenses, which
    includes staff.

96. Coals from these mines could therefore be
    delivered in Nelson at the following rates:—