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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Wellington Provincial District]

The Greymouth-Point Elizabeth Railway and Coal Company, Limited

The Greymouth-Point Elizabeth Railway and Coal Company, Limited. Directors: The Hon. Cecil T. Parker, J.P. (chairman), Messrs. Joseph Macdonald, J.P., John McDonald, and Alexander MacDougall (managing director and sole representative in the Colony); trustees for debenture-holders, Sir George Barclay Bruce and the Hon. Arthur G. Brand, M.P.; secretary, Mr. L. J. Langmead; solicitors, Messrs. Wilkins, Blyth, Dutton, and Hartley. Bankers in London, the British Linen Company Bank. Capital, £200,000 in £1 shares, and £90,000 in debentures. This large British company was incorporated in 1893. Their property consists of six thousand acres of the Greymouth coal reserve, leased from the Government for sixty-six years at a royalty of sixpence per ton. In October, 1895, the Company purchased from the Grey Valley Coal Company, Limited, the famous Brunner Mine, which is now being worked. The Company's collieries, besides the Brunner, are known as Coal Creek, Camp Creek, Seven-Mile Creek, and Point Elizabeth. Some of the finest coal seams in the Colony exist on the property of this Company, the quality being said to equal, if not excel, any coal in Australasia, but for gas purposes the Brunner coal is considered unequalled in the colonies, the output from the Brunner mine being about 130,000 tons per annum. The Greymouth-Point Elizabeth Company are spending about £100,000 in constructing a railway to connect their other mines with Greymouth, including the construction of a large bridge over the Grey river, and the opening up of the works. Mr. C. Napier Bell, C.E., has designed the bridge, and is retained to supervise its construction, besides acting as the Company's consulting engineer. The rolling stock required for the new railway will cost from £20,000 to £25,000. There can be little doubt that in a short time the Company will be able to produce enormous quantities of coal. At the present time they supply many of the gas companies of the Colony, and hold a contract for the supply of most of the West Coast coal used on the New Zealand Government railways. A splendid deposit of fire clay on the Company's works enables them to manufacture bricks, gas retorts, and fire clay goods of every kind, for which there is a great and increasing demand. The coke manufactured by the Company is of excellent quality, and many thousand tons are shipped to various parts of Australasia every year.