COAL MINES AND GOLD WORKINGS. 
361 
grazing. Before leaving, I took the opportunity of 
visiting the coal deposit which has recently been 
discovered, and for the working of which a company 
has been formed. 
The mine is situated some six miles inland, and is 
easily reached by a line of railway, over which a 
locomotive and trucks run frequently during the 
day. After leaving the cleared space of the settle- 
ment, the road lies through a dense forest (just cleared 
sufficient for traffic), until reaching the bed of a 
stream which debouches at Sandy Point. After cross- 
ing this stream by a light bridge, a ravine is reached, 
and in the side of a mountain rising some 300 feet 
above the level of the sea the shafts or burrows have 
been driven, perhaps in some places to a depth of 
50 or 60 feet ; the seams vary from 4 to 5 feet in 
thickness, and are deposited between layers of clay 
and shell, with bands of shale in immediate contact. 
Frnm what could be seen of them, the specimens pre- 
sented the appearance of the bituminous fuel known 
as caking coal. The 44 out-put ” as yet has not been 
very great, but from the results of some thirty tons 
tried by us, very fair reports have been made, 
especially when mixed with Welsh. 
Gold is also found here. For its working a com- 
pany has been started. The results, however, have 
been small, yet I believe sufficient to give encourage- 
ment to go on with it. 
As population and colonisation increase, the in- 
