PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TANCO-882
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2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
he expressed to me was, that he did not think from their nature they could be of much further extent; that it was possible several thousand tons could yet be obtained from them, but that it was equally possible they might come at any time to a termination.
30. Such a termination, it should be observed, may be brought about in two ways. It may be brought about by the exhaustion of the coal, or it may be brought about by causes which, while the coal is still unexhausted, preveut its further extraction. These causes may arise either from natural difficulties, or from difficulties created by injudicious or unskilful working.
31. When Mr. Gray arrived, and took over the management, he found that the entrance to the Gowrie coal seams was by means of two levels driven into the side of the hill, and that from these two levels four different ways had been opened out into the lifferent seams, constituting, it may be said, four different workings. Of these four workings no less than three were closed: They had been injudiciously driven and injudi- ciously worked, and the consequence was that the roof had fallen in. The fourth working was still open. It was the one where the coal cropped out to the very surface, and even here there had been injudicious working, and, in short, there was not much coal remaining in it for output.
32. But except the Gowrie Mines, there was no place known of from which a supply of coal could be obtained. Necessity, therefore, drove the new Manager back upon the closed workings.
33. At a great expense these were reopened, and then it became evident that the injudicious working had not been confined to the roof, which had fallen in on that account, but that it had been extended to the pavement, which had been worked below its level, and was consequently flooded. It became almost impossible to make good the damage that had been inflicted on these works. What could be done was done, and the ways opened out as far as possible to allow of the coal being wrought.
34. From these works altogether Mr. Gray obtained between the date of his arrival (June 29, 1871) and the 7th September, 1872, 5,029 tons.*
35. But about the latter date, the heavy rains which had set in began to take effect upon the soil above the workings.
The roof once ruined, it had been impossible to restore to the workings that strength of solidity and consistency which they should never have lost. Every displacement of earth, when the roof first fell in, necessarily weakened the spot adjoining that from which it was displaced. This impaired consistency would soon spread over the immediately surrounding soil. The distance between the surface of the ground and the driven levels or ways beneath the ground was very inconsiderable, for the workings were surface- workings.
The heavy tropical rains soon found out the weak places. By-and-by, one landslip took place, then another, then a succession, till the workings were once more closed.
36. Two or three months were spent in a vain struggle against this state of things. But the mischief was too far gone; the mines were on the move."
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37. Thus it became necessary to abandon these workings, as, apart from the time that would be lost, the expense of reopening them would be too great for the value of whatever coal might still be left in them.
38. The Gowrie Mines had come to a practical termination.
39. And now the very serious question presented itself as to whence a supply of coal was to be obtained for the next year.
40. A new opening was made, in the hope of gaining some coal from the pillars of some of the workings, and not wholly without success; for the manager tells me he may yet be enabled to save a small supply in this way.
This, carefully husbanded, would at all events be enough to feed the colliery engines for the present; and, so far, immediate apprehensions on this score were removed.
41. But if a more certain supply was to be secured, or if there was to be any colliery output beyond this for the next twelve months, it became necessary to find some other source.
42. With this view, some of the old and long-abandoned surface-workings of former companies were opened and examined, not without considerable difficulties. An entrance was effected into two; which, however, were found to be completely exhausted.
A third attempt was more successful. An old working of Mr. Sinclair's was reopened, and in this the stoops, or pillars supporting the working, were found untouched. The
• It will be understood that the Returns given are of clean (ie., saleable or marketable) coal, and do not include what is known pu" small and waste" coal.
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working, apparently, had been abandoned on account of a heavy landslip, which had closed the entrance. This has been removed, and though some further damage is found inside, Mr. Gray hopes to repair the way, and thus secure from the recovered stoops a sufficient supply for some months to come.
43. It has been a fortunate discovery; for to such an extremity had the present coal- supplying sources come, that from the 7th September to the 31st January just past, a period of nearly five months, the total output of clean coal was only 308 tons,
44. Your Lordship will judge from these details what a serious position it was that the affairs of the Company in this island had been reduced to at the time of the arrival of the present manager, and with what difficulties he has had since to contend.
Sir,
No. 2.
I bave, &c. (Signed)
HENRY, BULWER.
Governor Bulwer to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received April 28.)
Government House, Labuan, March 1, 1873: WITH reference to my despatch of the 30th December last,* I would ask your Lordship's permission to amend two statements in that Report.
2. In paragraph 11 it is stated that the subscription by the Coal Company to the Civil Hospital was reduced to 30 or 35 dollars per month,
3. I find that the precise arrangement made between the Company's Manager and the Colonial Surgeon was, that the monthly subscription should be 25 dollars, together with an allowance for diet of 10 c. per diem for every native in the employment of the Company, and of 40 c. per diem for every European in their employment, under and during treatment in the hospital.
4. The amount received on this account (diet allowance) has been inconsiderable since the altered rate commenced on the 1st of May last, the total during the nine months ending let February last amounting to 23 dol. 30 c.
5. Your Lordship will see from this that the question of hospital diet for the Com- pany's servants was fully regarded by the Colonial Surgeon.
6. The reduced rate of subscription paid by the Company has not been attended as yet with inconvenience.
7. When I arrived, the funds of the Institution were in debt to the sum of 80 dollars to Mr. Warren, the ex-gaoler, who appears to have been formerly the purveyor to the establishment. I reported in my despatch of 3rd June last that I had stopped the practice of paying an allowance of 20 dollars per month to the Colonial apothecary out of the funds. Not only has the debt referred to been paid off, but on the 1st of this month there was a balance to the credit of the Institution of 65 dollars.
3. The other statement in my Report which has to be amended occurs in paragraph 12. It is there represented that the Company paid 6091. 188. 5d. for several repairs and alterations on the Coal Point Road, including the building of a bridge over the Gangara River.
I certainly read the paragraph over to Mr. Howard, from whom I necessarily obtained information on the subject; but the part where mention is made of the Gangara bridge must have escaped his notice, for he has since informed me that the bridge in question was not built by convict but by free labour, and was paid for separately by the Company and not through or to the Government, and is not included in the 8091,
10. I notice that Governor Hennessy, in his answer to the complaint made by the Directors of the Company that a road had been made to the Governor's House at a charge to the Company of 4411. 168. 2d. or thereabouts, construes the complaint to refer to a different work from that which I did.
11. In either case the Directors were wrong as to any road being made to the Governor's house at the charge of the Company, but I am still disposed to think they referred to the Coal Point Road, because of the high amount of the payment they complain of.
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12. For the repairs and alterations made to the Coal Point Road the Colonial Govern- ment received from the Company 6097, 18s. 5d., whilst the cost of the accommodation road commenced to the proposed line of railway did not quite amount to 101, the precise
+ Paragraph 7.
• Vide page 2 of Confidential Paper printed March 1871.
Vide page 40 of Conadential Paper printed January 14, 1878, paragraph 28 [86]. [374]
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