General.

Although it is scarcely my province to do so, I shall, in conclusion, point out some of the advantages possessed by the Kaitangata Railway and Coal Mine, which amounts, in my opinion, to a guarantee of the success of the scheme, provided they are not neutralised by bad management, or some other extraneous cause.

The Railway runs to the centre of a thriving and rising district which, independent of its mineral wealth, has a large trade in timber and agricultural produce; this, in itself, would bring a fair traffic to the line.

In addition to its superior quality, which has already enabled the Kaitangata to compete successfully with the Green Island coal in the Dunedin market, it has the advantage of being nearer the country consumer. Those at Green Island are the only other large mines that have railway communication; and in the matter of distance alone, they cannot compete with the Kaitangata one further south than Waihola, while all the country beyond is thickly settled, and badly supplied with fuel of any kind.

As already shewn, the cost of getting the Kaitangata coal can be reduced to a minimum. I do not know another mine in the Province that offers greater facilities for working. We may, therefore, set this against the extra railway carriage, and assume that the first cost of the coal delivered in Dunedin is not greater than that from the deep pits within six miles of the town.