PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TIC.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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They continue-"these works have not only entailed a heavy outlay upon this Company, but have necessitated their turning the force of their employés on the island to preparations for the future rather than to out put for the present.”
But to what work does this statement refer?
Not to the A pit, or the air pit for these had been abandoned in 1870.
Not to the B pit, for this remained as it was left by Mr. Sinclair, and it has been shown that but little progress has been made even in the preliminary operations for sinking it.
It can, then, only refer to the Gowrie mines-surface workings in the most exclusive and emphatic sense of the term-for there is not a level which is not a day level; and thus, strangely enough, the Directors are representing, in one paragraph, the necessity that had arisen for laying out a large sum of money on works of the very class which they had just deprecated in the preceding paragraph.
32. The Directors refer to the large sums expended by them upon the mines and to the small returns of coal hitherto yielded. But does not the cause of this non-success lie less in the mines than in the way in which they were worked? Were not the main efforts of the Company, instead of being directed to works by which a permanent supply of coal would be opened out, unfortunately too much given to those surface workings which, being limited in extent, were incapable of any development worth speaking of?
And not only was the yield of coal during that time insignificant, for it could not be otherwise, but, what is worse, all the labour expended in this direction led to nothing in the future, for every day employed in these surface mines, every ton of coals taken out of them, contributed not to the opening out of extensive resources but to the exhaustion of a limited supply.
33. It was thus that, after three years, the Company found themselves obliged to ask of Her Majesty's Government a further period, in order to develop sources of more permanent supply.
But how different would have been their position had they spent those first three years in prosecuting, vigorously and resolutely, that sounder system of operations upon which the ultimate success of their enterprise must depend.
34. It is not for me to say where the responsibility of the course adopted lies- whether with the Directors or their agent in the island. I have simply thought it my duty, as the subject has been mooted in connection with their request to be in part released from the terms upon which the concession was granted to them, to lay the whole case, as it appears to me, before your Lordship.
35. It is with more satisfaction I am able to refer to the operations of the Company during the past year.
From the date of Mr. Gray's arrival (June 1871) to the past month of June, considerable progress has been made in the operations for sinking the deep or 100- fathom pit, known as the B pit.
I have already shown that, by the 25th November, having completed all the necessary preparations. he commenced raising the water in the shaft, then within a few fathoms of the surface. As he exhausted the water, so he proceeded with the repair of the inner works of the shaft. By the new year he had removed the water, and on the 5th January he renewed the sinking of the shaft through the solid. On the 18th June, he had sunk from the 35 fathoms depth, where the work had been left by Mr. Sinclair, to a depth of 59 fathoms, having still 41 fatboms to sink before the main seam would be reached.
It was at this stage that he tapped a reservoir of water, which the means at his disposal have proved insufficient to remove; and though a powerful pumping engine is in store, I fear some time must elapse before it can be put in position.
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38. It only remains for me to add, that the efforts of the Company exerted in right direction, all difficulties so far as they can be foreseen will, I believe, vanish before a vigorous, firm, and prudent prosecution of the work in which they are now engaged, and which promises to open out a seam of coal, not only of better quality than has usually been raised in the island, but of such an extent as, granted a proper and sufficient system of working, will insure for many years a valuable annual output.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HENRY BULWER.
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No. 32.
Governor Bulwer to the Earl of Kimberley.-(Received October 28.)
(Confidential.) My Lord,
Government House, Labuan, August 13, 1872. I HAVE carefully considered the question on which your Lordship has asked my opinion, as to the practicability of the Labuan coal mines being worked directly by the Government, in the event of the failure of the present Company or of their abandonment of the enterprise.
2. The mode in which Mr. Hennessy, in the letter to which your Lordship refers, suggests they should in such case be worked, is by the means of convict labour, and he anticipates that the revenue would in this way be doubled, and an abundant supply of coal provided at much less than the price now charged for it.
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8, This question admits of consideration according as the intention would be to make such an undertaking on the part of the Government a permanent or a teniporary
one.
4. The Government, for instance, might propose to engage in the working of the mines, which are Crown property, as part of a financial policy, taking the place of a Company, and, in short, entering upon the undertaking as a commercial enterprise; or, on the other hand, it might simply propose to hold the place of a Company for a certain time, pending the dissolution of one Company and the formation of another; working the mines chiefly with the view of maintaining their workable status quo and remu- nerating itself with such output as it could raise during the time.
5. It is to the former of these courses that your Lordship's inquiry appears to point,
and, as it is the most important, I will enter first upon the several considerations which present themselves to me in connection with such a scheme.
6. The first considerations arise out of the nature of the labour which it is proposed should be employed.
It would be necessary, in the first place, to decide whether the employment of convicts in underground works at the mines should be obligatory or voluntary on their part; but, as the opinions of your Lordship and of two preceding Secretaries of State have been already expressed on the subject, when a proposition was made to assist the Coal Company with convict labour in the mines, I abstain from entering now into this part of the question.
7. Assuming the voluntary character of the labour, the question suggests itself whether a sufficient number of convicts could be found to volunteer or in what way they could be induced to volunteer. It is well-known that the underground work of a miner is laborious, and the occupation attended with certain inconveniences, discomforts, and risks from which ordinary outdoor labour is exempt. Some inducements, therefore, there must always be to counterbalance the disadvantages. Amongst the motives by which the English miner is influenced may be mentioned the necessity to labour, even in the least attractive industries, which a redundant population, and the consequent keen competition of life create; the tendency of one generation in a district to follow the pursuits of a former generation, whether those pursuits be agricultural, manufacturing. mining, &c.; and the inducement of a higher rate of wages which this description of labour fetches as compared with ordinary agricultural labour. Bnt it is plain that none of these causes will affect a body of convicts who are already provided with the first necessaries of life-with lodging, sufficient food, and clothing; and unless some other inducement is held out to them, what reasons are there for expecting that they will volunteer to perform labour of a more arduous description and attended with greater disadvantages than that which their condition obliges them to perform? The only inducement to such men that I can conceive would be the concession of certain indul- gencies in the quantity or quality of their rations, in luxuries such as tobacco and tea, by money allowances, or by shortening their periods of penal servitude.
Privileges such as these might be considered, however, to be an interference with the deterrent object of penal discipline and with the sentences passed on these men; but it is by such means, and only by such means, that it would, I think, be possible to secure to any extent their voluntary labour.
8. Proceeding to the consideration of what would be the amount of labour required in order to conduct the permanent working of the mines in that proper and sufficient manner by which alone such an enterprise can hope for success, Mr. Howard, whom I have confidentially consulted on the subject, estimates the total number of persons to be employed at the mines at 222, which number would include five Europeans, and
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