COAL-MINING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 1015 
To summarise, we can trace the seams of the Southern coal-field 
along the South ‘Coast Ranges from Jamberoo, 70 miles south of 
Sydney, to Coalcliff, within 35 miles of Sydney ; ; northwards by 
means of the Metropolitan Colliery, the bores at Mount 
Westmacott, the Holt-Sutherland Estate, Liverpool, and finally 
at Sydney. 
From Sydney northwards a hiatus in our knowledge exists, 
and we must travel on past the bores at Wyong to Catherine Hill 
Bay to reach known ground. In this long gap of 70 odd miles, 
changes in the character of the coul-seams and the enclosing 
rocks are inevitable, and render the relation of the Northern to 
the Southern coals a matter of speculation. 
METHODS OF WORKING. 
Of the two systems of coal-working—pillar and stall, and 
longwall—the former has been with a few exceptions exclusively 
employed in the Colony, and it is to be regretted in many cases 
with little regard to fundamental principles. Impatient owners 
and anxious managers have too frequently, with short-sighted 
economy, left pillars of too small size, resulting in irretrievable 
loss of coal and in danger to human life. 
In some of the shallow mines of Newcastle the unaltered 
methods of half a century or more have held their sway, and 
bords of 8 yards and pillars of 4 yards width have been the rule. 
A somewhat similar state of affairs has obtained in some of the 
Southern collieries, where perhaps some justification may be 
admitted on account of pecuiiar parallel “rolls ” of stone on the 
floor between which, for economy, the bords or stal's are driven. 
In other Southern collieries, pillars 12, 16, and 20 yards wide are 
being left in the first working , and in one notable instance—the 
Metropolitan Colliery—pillars 250 yards long and 50, and ai times 
100, yards wide are left where, on account of peculiar conditions 
not altogether dependent on depth, smaller sized pillars are 
objectionable. In some of the newer collieries of the North, 8 yards 
pillars are the rule. 
Longwall, with its many advantages under certain conditions, has 
only been adopted i in a few instances. 
It cannot but ke matter for surprise that in a country like 
Australia, where miners’ wages rule high, and where in its oldest 
and chief coal-tield the hewing rate constituted by far the highest 
item in the winning cost, little or no effort has been made to 
introduce coal- cutting machinery ; and it is the writer’s belief that, 
paradoxical as it may appear, the miner’s best hope of maintaining 
a high level of wages lies in the adoption of labour-saving appli- 
ances that may enable the colliery companies to compete with 
outside rivals. 
