Corrigenda.

Trans Fed, Inst. vol., iv., page 81, line 13, for "check" real "cause.

page 112

Mr. T. E. Forster said he had had the pleasure of seeing one of the New Zealand coal-mines, by the assistance of Mr. Biting, who was kind enough when he (Mr. Forster) was in Dunedin to show him the Kaitangata colliery mentioned in the paper. He was interested by the ingenious way in which the manager had contrived to overcome many of the difficulties. He would like to ask Mr. Binns whether all the coal on the West Coast was capable of being made into coke. He gathered from the paper that the proposal to supply New Zealand coke to Broken Hill had not been a success; if the coal was so free from ash, as stated, it seemed strange that it had not been able to compete with English coke. Mr. Binns showed how the Colonial Government took over and resumed land for the purpose of colliery-railways or mining-works. The law was practically the same in Australia so far as railways were concerned, but it must be rcmembered that the physical characteristics of the country ane very different from those existing at home. Everything which gave employment in Australia was considered as a matter of public utility, but that standard of excellence had not been yet attained in this country.

Prof. Hull said Mr. Binns, piper seemed to contain a most valuable synopsis of the coal-fields of New Zealand, in which the writer had gathered into a very small space a large amount of useful information. It was a remarkable fact, notwithstanding the proximity of the two countries, that the coal-fields of New Zealand should be geologically of much more recent date than those of Australia. The great coal-bearing tracts of Australia were either of the same Carboniferous age as the coal-helds of the British islands, or very nearly verging thereon, but those in New Zealand were very much more recent, being of the period on the borderland between the Secondary and Tertiary rocks, consequently they could not expect the coals to be so highly mineralized as they were in Australia, in the British Isles, or in America. He would not have considered the Westport coal to be a good steam coal, and it was remarkable that it should have given such excellent results as were indicated on page 77. He was going to venture on a generalization which he hoped might not be considered out of place. It was to the effect that wherever the Anglo-Saxon race bad colonized, whether in America, in Australia, or in New Zealand, that race always seemed to find at hand the materials necessary for the development of its industries to the highest degree. These coal-fields in New Zealand might have lain for incalculable ages useless in the hands of the Maoris, for many years would have passed before they would have developed a steam-engine or sunk a shaft.

page 113

The President moved a vote of thanks to Mr. Binns br his excellent paper, which was an exceedingly valuable contribution to the Transactions, and, he thought, would form a useful work of refertnce in connexion with the working of mines in New Zealand.

Mr. T. E. Forster seconded the motion, which was cordially alopted.

Mr. Binns said he was exceedingly obliged to the President for proposing, and to the members for carrying, the vote of thanks. He thought it a sufficient privilege to be allowed to publish what little he knev in the Transactions of the Institution, without being specialty thanked for it. The West Coast coal made very good coke, but the freedom from ash was not always the same us in the Westport. Grey mouth coal contained from 3.81 to 6.45 per cent of ash, and that seam was made into coke to a large extent, but it did not appear, from the recent report of the Minster of Mines, to have been a success.

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