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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 71

(6) Canterbury Goal-fields

(6) Canterbury Goal-fields.

Although, as has been stated, the West Coast coal-fields alone supply coal of first-class quality, there is much fuel of a valuable nature to be found ou the eastern side of the great axial range of mountains known as the Southern Alps.

In the Province of Canterbury the principal development in this direction has been in the Malvern district, where the following four classes of coal are found:—
1.Anthracite.
2.Altered brown coals, in which the percentage of water is not high.
3.Altered brown coals in which the percentage of water is high.
4.Brown coals.

The working of the first class is confined to a small pit, whence the supply for a sheep station is obtained, and the output from which has averaged only 10 tons per annum since the pit started, the return for 1891 being nil. The locality is geologically interesting as the anthracitic quality of the coal is directly traceable to a dolerite flow, which overlies the seam. The analyses given vary very much, fixed carbon being returned as constituting from 65.8 to 88.91 per cent, of the total, and ash up to 24.25 per cent.

page 84
Of the second class the output has ceased, as the seams formerly worked dipped at very high angles, and were soon exhausted to water-level, below which it did not pay to follow them. The analysis shows:—
Per Cent.
Fixed carbon 53.29
Hydrocarbons 32.04
Water 12.65
Ash 2.02
100.00
but the composition probably varies very much.

Of the third class, a little has been raised for the requirements of a sheep station.

The brown coals which constitute the fourth class were at one time largely mined, but the trade seems to have greatly fallen off, and in 1801 the production was only 11,710 tons from 6 mines, whereas in 1884 it was more than double. The following analyses of the Springfield coal may serve as an example of the quality:—
Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent. Per Cent.
Fixed carbon 47.90 50.60 55.50 63.20
Hydrocarbons 41.80 38.80 30.90 23.60
Water 6.30 7.80 4.20 3.20
Ash 4.00 2.80 9.40 10.00
100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

Though there are in the southern portion of Canterbury sundry small mines, none of them merit much attention, and it must be allowed that the mineral resources of this province are but poor. Fortunately, the natural agricultural advantages are so great as to amply compensate for mineral poverty, and a judicious and elaborate irrigation scheme has materially assisted agriculture.