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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 32

Mine

Mine.

The Company's lease gives them the privelege of mining over an area of 1000 acres, and the present mine is opened near the middle of the western boundary. A drive of 100 yards into the slope of the hill strikes the coal at right angles to the seam, which at this point is 27 feet thick. I do not consider myself competent to make an estimate of the quantity of coal at this particular place, or in the whole ground leased by the Company, but when it is considered that a seam of equal thickness exists at Coal Point on the sea coast, three miles due east from your mine, and that coal has been found in various places for two miles north and south, I do not think it is too much to assume that the greater part, if not the whole of your land, is occupied by a thick seam of coal.

So far as working is concerned, it would be almost impossible to find a mine which offers greater facilities than the Kaitangata one. As already stated, the railway runs right up to the entrance, and the coal is received into the waggons 100 yards from where it is got. Indeed, if necessary, the locomotive might be taken into the workings. The seam dips towards the railway, consequently, the drive and workings have a fall outwards, which ensures perfect drainage at a minimum cost. The horizontal drive, instead of a vertical shaft, effectually saves the heavy charges of lifting and pumping. The roof of the mine is at present hard cemented conglomerate, easily supported; but if heavier ground is met with, the cost of propping will not be great, as Kaitangata is one of the best timber districts in Otago.