DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND. 



"43 



A line of railway eighteen miles long connects the Port with Waimangaroa and 

 Ngakawhau, where the colleries are in full work. The mineral at the former place is 

 wrought at a height of two thousand feet above the sea-level, and is lowered by means 

 of ingenious self-acting incline tram-ways. Quite a small fleet of steamers is engaged in 

 the export trade, for the quality of the coal has won a very high repute. Gold-mining 

 and timber-cutting are afso carried on in the district. This trip to Westport, however. 

 is a divergence from the route which follows the course of the Inangahua River to 

 Reefton, and thence proceeds by way of the lovely Grey Valley to Greymouth, the 

 Newcastle of New Zealand. A noticeable incident of the coaching trip is the passage 





THE TOWN OF GREYMOUTH. 



of the Duller by punt at Redman's Bar, just after leaving Lyell. Reefton is situated upon 

 the banks of the Inangahua, forty-eight miles north-east of Greymouth. It was the scene 

 of a remarkable "rush" in 1871, when auriferous quartz-reefs were first discovered in the 

 neighbourhood, and for nine years the "scrip fever" ran its intermittent course, sometimes 

 culminating in periods of wild excitement, and at other times plunging its subjects into 

 corresponding lassitude and depression. Gold, however, is by no means the only mineral 

 that repays systematic enterprise, for coal is found over an area forty miles square, 

 and several mines are at work for the use of the quartz-reducing batteries, and for 

 other local purposes. 



WESTLAND AND CANTERBURY. 



Greymouth, to which reference has already been made, stands on the sea-coast, on 

 the southern bank of the Grey River, which forms the boundary between the provinces 

 of Nelson and Westland. It is a place of considerable importance, as not only is the 

 surrounding district auriferous, but extensive agricultural settlements have been established 

 in the Grey Valley, while splendid coal is found in large quantities all around it. A line 

 of railway seven miles in length leads directly to the Brunnerton coal-mines, of which 

 there are four in active work, carrying on operations upon a scale of increasing magni- 

 tude. The Harbour Board has raised a loan of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds 

 in England, and is engaged upon a scheme of port improvement designed by Sir John 



