Sir,
52
No. 39.
Mr. Herbert to the Secretary to the Oriental Coal Company.
Downing Street, November 16, 1872. I AM dirceted by the Earl of Kimberley to transmit to you, to be laid before the Directors of the Oriental local Company, the copy of a despatch from Governor Bulwer reviewing the general position of the coal mining operations in the Island of Labuan.*
I have, &c.
R. G. W. HERBERT.
53
suspension of the Crown's claim for rent under their lease. They have also paid to us the sum of 131. 118. 4d., being the balance due to the Crown in respect of royalties on coal raised and sold up to 25th December, 1870.
These sums, amounting together to 752. 98. 4d., will be paid over by us to the Crown Agents for the Colonies, to be carried to their account with the Colony of Labuan.
I have, &c. (Signed) T. W. C. MURDOCH.
(Signed)
No. 40.
No. 44.
Sir,
Mr. Herbert to the Secretary to the Oriental Coal Company.
Downing Street, November 16, 1872.
I AM directed by the Earl of Kimberley to transmit to you, for the information of the Directors of your Company, a copy of a despatch from Mr. Pope Hennessyt in reply to one from his Lordship, in which Mr. Lindsay's letter of the 27th July, and your letter of the 3rd of August§ were referred to him for any observations he should wish to offer.
Lord Kimberley desires me to request that full explanations may be given to him with regard to the payments said to be due to the Sultan of Borneo.
Sir,
I have, &c.
(Signed) R. G. W. HERBERT.
No. 41..
The Colonial Office to the Foreign Office.
Downing Street, November 16, 1872.
I AM directed by the Earl of Kimberley to transmit to you, to be laid before Earl Granville, extracts from a report by Mr. Pope Hennessy as to the proceedings of the Oriental Coal Company of Labuan, in regard of the payments due by them to the Sultan of Borneo.
Lord Kimberley apprehends that it will be for the Foreign Office to address Mr. Bulwer as Consul, on this subject; and has directed the attention of the Company
to it.
No. 42.
I have, &c.
(Signed) R. G. W. HERBERT.
Governor Bulwer to the Earl of Kimberley.-(Received November 30.)
(No. 71.) My Lord,
Government House, Labuan, September 17, 1872. WITH reference to my previous communications respecting the present mining operations at Coal Point, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that Mr. Gray, the Company's manager, has succeeded in erecting the pumping engine, the necessity for resorting to which, in order to raise the water encountered in sinking the 100-fathom shaft, has been already reported by me.
2. The foundations for it have been made, and the pumping engine erected in a shorter time than was anticipated, and this has been due to the energetic exertions of the manager.
3. Unfortunately, however, some portion of the machinery must be procured from England before the engine can he worked to raise the water. The present bell cranks which belong to the machinery Mr. Gray has pronounced to be unsuitable; and though he has written to his Directors, some weeks must elapse before new cranks can be received.
4. In reporting the progress made by Mr. Gray in sinking the shaft, I ought to have mentioned that the shaft, as commenced by Mr. Sinclair in 1866, and then carried to a depth of 35 fathoms, was circular, with a diameter of 12 feet. As continued by Mr. Gray from the 35-fathom depth, it is a rectangular figure inscribed, as it were, in the circle, and consequently of a smaller area than was originally intended by its designer.
5. The change of form represents, I believe, the difference between the English and the Scotch modes of shaft sinking. In the present instance Mr. Gray, accustomed to Scotch mines, affirms that so much valuable time is saved by this alteration of figure and reduction of area, the segments of the circle being left solid and untouched; the English miner would say that so much valuable space is lost, and not only this, but that the circular form is better adapted for resisting the pressure upon it from without.
6. I am disposed to think the Company has reduced the area of the shaft from motives of economy, and it is not improbable that the present bell cranks for the pumping engine are found unsuitable as being too large for the reduced area.
I have, &c.
(Signed) HENRY BULWER.
The Earl of Kimberley to Governor Bulwer.
(No. 57.) Sir,
Downing Street November 18, 1872. WITH reference to my despatch No. 46 of the 3rd of September,¶ transmitting two letters from the Oriental Coal Company, complaining of the treatment they had received from your predecessor, I have now the honour to inclose, for your information, Mr. Hennessy's observations on the subject,**
gir,
I have, &c.
(Signed)
KIMBERLEY.
No. 43.
Sir C. Murdoch to Mr. Herbert (Received November 28.)
Emigration Board, November 28, 1872.
WITH reference to Mr. Holland's letter of 16th ultimo,†† I have to report that the Oriental Coal Company, Limited, have paid to us the sum of 611. 188., as royalties due for one year and a half from 25th December, 1870, to 24th June, 1872, pending the
↑ No. 33.
• No. 31.
§ No. 15.
| Paragraphs 63 tu 67 and part of 70 of No. 38.
• No. 33.
✰ No. 14.
No. 19.
* No. 30.
Sir,
No. 45.
Mr. Herbert to the Secretary to the Oriental Coal Campany.
Downing Street, December 2, 1872. I AM directed by the Earl of Kimberley to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, of the 14th ultimo,t with reference to certain charges of the local Government against the Oriental Coal Company,
As to the rates charged for lighterage, am to observe that under the lease the Governor, has to determine what shall be the reasonable rate of charge for this service "having regard to the capital invested in, and the wear and tear of the lighters, but exclusive of any question of profit;" and that Lord Kimberley would not be disposed to interfere with the arrangements Mr. Bulwer has made on this head, unless the Directors can show good grounds for demanding a reconsideration of the matter.
With regard to the rent of 100%. paid by the Company, which the Directors submit should be reduced to the nominal sum of 1s, yearly. I am to point out that this rent is not paid in respect of a “single jetty," but of a wharf site, (having a frontage on the
† No. 35. * No. 61 of 19th July (No. 21); No. 68 of 18th July (No. 31).
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51
harbour of 400 feet, with a depth of about 200 feet), and of two lots of land in the rear of 1 acre, and 10 acres respectively.
The rent was fixed by Lord Granville (in 1870, after very full consideration of what was due to the Colony and fair to the Company), and as the site and the two lots of land appear to be of considerable value, Lord Kimberley does not see any sufficient reason for any reduction of the amount.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
No. 46.
R. G. W. HERBERT.
The Earl of Kimberley to Governor Bulwer.
(No. 59.) Sir,
Downing Street, December 2. 1872. WITH reference to your despatch No. 56 of the 29th of June* respecting the charges made on the Coal Company for convict labour and police supervision, I have the honour to transmit to you for your information and guidance copies of correspondence that has passed between the Company and this department on the subject.†
(No. 60.) Sir,
No. 47.
I have, &c.
(Signed) KIMBERLEY.
The Earl of Kimberley to Governor Bulwer.
Downing Street, December 4, 1872. WITH reference to my despatch No. 46 of the 3rd of September‡ showing the terms on which I had consented to the postponement of the rent due from the Oriental Coal Company, I have the honour to inform you that, on the acceptance of those terme by the Company, the Emigration Commissioners addressed a letter to them requesting the payment of 611. 188. on account of royalties of 6d. per ton on 2,476 tons of coal raised and sold between the 25th of December, 1870, and the 24th of June last exclusive of supplies to Her Majesty's navy.
This sum has been paid by the Company, together with a further sum of 134 11s. 4d. being the balance due to the Crown in respect of royalties on coal raised and sold up to 23th December 1870; these sums will be carried by the Crown Agenis to the credit of your Government,
I have, &c. (Signed)
Sir,
No. 48.
Mr. Wood to Mr. Herbert.~(Received December 21.)
KIMBERLEY.
The Oriental Coal Company (Limited), 55, Bernard Street, Leith, December 20, 1872.
I AM desired by the Directors of the Oriental Coal Company (Limited) to acknowledge receipt of your two separate letters of the 16th ultimo,§ one conveying a copy communication from Governor Bulwer, of Labuan, dated 30th July last, the other conveying a copy communication from ex-Governor Pope Hennessy, dated Sierra Leone, 5th October last.
'The Directors desire to thank Lord Kimberley for the above documents.
The Directors desire specially to express their approval of the masterly and straight- forward exposition by Governor Bulwer of the history and course of management of the coal mines, in which generally they heartily concur.
The Directors particularly feel the force of Governor Bulwer's question, "Would it be even safe to assert that the position of the Company was in any way better in 1871 than it was in 1868?"
The Directors also specially concur in Governor Bulwer's very pungent remark,
↑ Nos. 34, 35, and 48.
No. 19.
Nos. 39 and 40.
• No. 20.
55
"But how different would have been the position of the Company 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."
The Directors cannot shut their eyes to this, that if such a communication as Governor Bulwer's had been made by his predecessor, Governor Hennessy, the mines and the Colony itself would have been very different from what they are.
So far as the mines are concerned the Directors are satisfied that, instead of having only lately begun to sink a deep pit after a loss of 40,0001., almost all spent fruitlessly; and instead of having to contemplate, as Mr. Hennessy does, "the possibility that the Government may have to deal with that which most of your Lordship's predecessors, since the time of Lord Grey, have encountered, a bankrupt coal company at Labuan:" if the mining operations had been differently directed, the Directors have every reason to believe that the Company would by this time have been a great success.
Governor Bulwer refers with considerable satisfaction to a Mr. Sinclair, the manager
at Labuan of one of the old companies, but he does not appear to have made himself acquainted with the later history of that individual, the mere knowledge of which is sufficient to show how much the Directors, and the fate of the shareholders are in the hands of their manager at Labuan.
So far
This Company, which has several leading shareholders who were connected with the Company of which Mr. Sinclair was manager, appointed Mr. Lumsden to be their manager at Labuan, and this appointment was thought at the time to be a fortunate one. as Mr. Hennessy's opinion is concerned the appointment appears to have been the best that could have been made.
Governor Bulwer, while leaving nothing in doubt as to the character of the working of the mines in Mr. Lumsden's time from 1868 to 1871 states that it is with more satisfaction he is able to refer to the operations of the Company during the past year, that is since the arrival in Labuan of the new manager, Mr. Gray, June 1871.
Governor Bulwer states that to the month of June last, 1872, considerable progress had been made in the operations for sinking the deep or 100 fathoms pit. He particularly stated this, "I have already shown that by the 25th November, 1871, having completed all the necessary preparations he, Mr. Gray, 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 repairs of the inner works of the shaft. By the new year he had removed the water, and on the 5th January, 1872, 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 fathoms to sink before the main seam would be reached. It was at this stage he met 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 clapse before it can be put into position."
It is proper to state that this reservoir was not the first which Mr. Gray encountered in sinking the shaft It was the second occurrence of the kind. The first one was over- come by Mr. Gray, but this second one he failed to overcome by all ordinary means. By Mr. Gray's advice, however, further machinery has been ordered in this country, and notwithstanding the exceptional state of the iron trade in this country, the Directors are glad to be able to state that the new machinery has been made, and is now on the way to Labuan.
Meantime Mr. Gray had with great skill succeeded, according to letters dated 22nd October last, and received on 30th November last, in making such temporary adjustments: as had enabled him to start the pumping engine, and resume operations on the pit.
Mr. Gray assures the Directors that he feels satisfied that he will complete the shaft for the pit, within eight months from the date he receives the new machinery. The Directors have every reason to believe not only in the ability, but in the honesty and steady character of Mr. Gray.
The Directors rejoice in the testimony borne by Governor Bulwer to the character of the enterprise in which they are engaged. They believe it to be well founded. The Governor states that "the efforts of the Company exerted in a 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 extent as, granted a proper and sufficient system of working, will insure for many years a valuable output."
Now, it may not be out of place to state what the Directors of this Company have done to promote the success of the Labuan mines.
L