PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
39
total estimate of the revenue for 1872 was put at 7,720., to which total the computed receipts from the Coal Company contribute no less than 1,820. This contribution would, of course, cease with the transfer of the mines to Government, and even if, by any effort of taxation or by any effort of reduced establishment, the revenue and the expenditure could be balanced, it is clear that nothing could remain to the Government of the Colony to contribute to the working of the mines. It is only by a grant or by a loan that the outlay expenses of the undertaking could be met.
46. I have now completed the considerations which belong to the first of the two causes which, at the commencement of this despatch, 1 indicated as those to which the question of a Government undertaking in the mines might be presumed to refer.
47. Of the other course, that, namely, under which the Government might propose to hold the mines for a time, pending the acceptance of the undertaking by a new Company, it is not necessary to say much. The Government in such case would scarcely be in a position to work the mines, because the same questions relating to supply of labour and the other means necessary to carry on the works would apply, in a great measure. to a temporary undertaking as to one of a more permanent character. All that it seems to me the Government could well undertake, in the event of and pending negotiations with a new Company, would be to hold the property in possession, preserving it from spoliation, preventing deterioration, and maintaining the works so far as it could in the condition in which they were left.
1
48. There is one other, or a third, course which may come within the scope of the suggestion, and which I will therefore proceed to examine at the same time. It might be suggested, namely, that though the Government had at its command neither capital, nor material means, nor sufficient supply of labour to prosecute the sinking of the deep shaft, which at the best could yield no immediate return, it might, notwithstanding, with such supply of convict labour as it now possesses, and with the experience of Mr. Howard, proceed in the track of the Company's surface workings, which have given and are now giving immediate returns of coal. Why should not the Government, it might be said, obtain coal as the Company has done from the Gowrie mines? The working of, those mines is one of comparative facility, and whatever amount of coal can be output and sold will help the revenue of the Colony.
49. Applying a practical test to such a scheme, the first question which arises is that of the labour. It is to be convict labour, and supplied from the body of convicts now in the island, no additional provision being in this way required for their maintenance and clothing, which are already borne on the estimates. But what proportion of the 100 convicts assumed to be available for hard labour is to be sent to the mines? Assuredly, not the whole body, because, if coal were brought down to Victoria there would then be no convict labour to do the work of loading and unloading. Besides, if all or the greater part were sent to the mines it would amount to a virtual abandonment of the public works of the Colony-its buildings, its roads, its system of drainage, &c.
50. Supposing fifty men to be sent to Coal Point, and, putting aside for the moment all considerations of the inconveniences proceeding from the want of a gaol establish- ment on the spot, as well as any other considerations as to the willingness or not of the convicts to work in the mines, the question limits itself to the results to be expected from their exertions.
51. I have elsewhere reported what the results were of Mr. Lumsden's exertions during three years. They showed a total return of something under 18,000 tons of coal during that time.
Yet, to obtain this quantity Mr. Lumsden had directed-had almost exclusively directed-all the resources of the Company he could command; he had experienced European miners and a labour staff, sometimes not under 200 or 300 men in number. ; and the field of operations which he had found was much larger than that which he left.
Despite, however, all these resources, the total result of his exertions, directed as they were to an immediate output, did not average a yield of 6,000 tons in the twelve months.
52. That Mr. Howard, without any other resources than the aid of fifty convicts, could obtain from the Gowrie mines this average amount, or an approximate amount, is beyond the range of possibility. He would, indeed, be fortunate if he could raise between 2,000 and 3,000 tons in the year.
53. But even this estimate depends on the supposition of an assured supply.
40
We do not know,” says Mr. Howard, "the extent of the Gowrie mines. They are surface outcrops of coal, and cannot therefore be very extensive for working purposes. They may yet contain several thousand tons of workable coal, but it is just as possible the supply may come to an end at any moment."
39
54. The question therefore is reduced to this: whether it would be worth the while of the Government to undertake mining operations of this most limited description-- operations which, under the most favourable circumstances, would not yield above 3,000 tons of coal in the year, and which, on the other hand, would be liable to be suddenly terminated at any moment by the termination of an uncertain supply?
55. I have now dealt with the question of Government enterprise in the mines from every point of view that occurs to me.
I do not know what precise course is intended by the suggestion made by Governor Hennessy, though I am disposed to think that it must be that of which I have last treated, for he does not touch on any one of the considerations that belong to a more extended undertaking. Yet, considerations of great importance, involving questions of labour, of materials, of capital, stand, as your Lordship will perceive, on the very threshold of such an undertaking, and must be resolved beforehand, for the moment the Govern- ment passed from design into action it would assuredly find itself face to face with them.
56. If the suggestion refers to the limited undertaking to be engaged in without capital, without materials, and without a greater supply of labour than the present convict establishment can afford, which I have above noticed, that my conclusions should differ from those of Mr. Hennessy, may in part be due to difference of views on the general situation-the present situation, that is to say, a position of the mining interests of the Colony.
57. On examining that position, and on inquiry into the past history of mining operations in the island, and into the causes of past failure, it struck me that the main cause of this failure was to be looked for in the system of working pursued.
58. I have stated in the despatch, to which I have more than once in the course of these remarks referred, and which your Lordship will receive together with these remarks, that the system pursued appears to have been one of surface workings, to the compara- tive or total neglect of deep workings; and it is to this system that I believe the failures of past companies may chiefly be attributed.
59, I have there endeavoured to show what are the faults of that system; and of the reasons I have given for its condemnation, your Lordship will be in a position to judge whether they have weight or not.
60. It is probable that Governor Hennessy did not attach the same importance to the system, or take the same view of it that I do, for I do not find that he anywhere alludes to the distinction between surface and deep workings; and I should distrust my own conclusions condemnatory of the former system did I not know they are shared in by others by Mr. Howard, who has witnessed the course of Labuan mining for fifteen years, and by Mr. Gray, the present manager for the Coal Company.
61. Entertaining these views condemnatory of surface workings, and of the neglect of deep workings, I cannot but differ very much from some of the opinions expressed by Mr. Hennessy in his letter to Mr. Meade of January last, and especially from his general opinion of the progress of the colliery under Mr. Lumsden's management expressed in that letter and in former official documents.
62. I bave shown what was the position at the mines when Mr. Lumsden arrived in May 1868. I have shown the nature and extent of his operations from that date to his departure in 1871. I have shown that he abandoned two pits in 1870; that most inade- quate and inconsiderable measures were taken for renewing the sinking of the deep shaft, which ought rather to have engaged all the attention and resources of the Company, and that those resources were, on the contrary, too much devoted to the object of obtaining immediate outputs from the Gowrie surface mines.
63. Any progress, therefore, that was made was confined to the surface workings of the Gowrie mines; but can that be considered progress which leads to no after results, which develops no resources for the future, and which, working out as much product as can be obtained at the moment from a limited source, helps and hastens nothing but the exhaustion of that source.
•
64. It follows very much then, on this difference of views, that I find it difficult to share in the unqualified confidence expressed by Mr. Hennessy in a Government under- taking, should the system of surface workings be pursued, especially as it would be in mines respecting whose further sources of supply so ominous a doubt exists; whilst, with respect to any other system none could be followed without the possession of those means for carrying it on which I have pointed out to be necessary.
65. I fully concur in the opinion that Governor Hennessy on more than one occasion expressed as to the capabilities and large resources of the Labuan coal fields,
• No. 7.