| Transcript |
- 70 VICTORIA ILLUSTRATED.
vening is owned by the company, whose landed and mineral estate exceeds 30,000 acres. They formerly owned the whole of Nanaimo, and still
hold a large part of it, together with Newcastle, Protection, and three or four other islands lying along the coast.
The miners, excepting those at Northfield, all live in Nanaimo, the company running work trains from the city to its outlying mines, which
enable its employees to have the comforts of city life. The railroads connecting the shafts with the big coal wharves at Nanaims are all
of the standard gauge, ensuring complete intercommunication with the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railroad, a privilege of which the other mining
companies, having independent gauges of their own, are deprived. It may be mentioned that the proprietors of this railroad have shown a
most friendly spirit to the New Vancouver Company in furnishing sidings and other facilities for traffic.
No. 1 shaft is termed the Eastfield, or Esplanade, while No. 3 is termed the Chase River. The Esplanade mine is the picturesque
feature of Nanaimo. Its lofty and massive chimney pouring forth black smoke all the day long, its great furnaces and boilers, its
magnificent engines made by Oliver, at Chesterfield, England, and the endless steel cable hoisting the coal cars up from the
depths at the rate of half a mile a minute all are striking features to the casual passer by. This shaft goes down for 600
feet, and there are over 10 miles of drift passages and slopes connecting with its foot. The engines can hoist 1,000 tons in 8 hours,
besides pumping water if required.
The output of the Southfield is to be largely augmented by the sinking of a third shaft, while the completion of a third shaft at the
Northfield will about double its present capacity.
Most of the coal is shipped to San Francisco, some of it, however, going to Southern California, the Sandwich Islands, Oregon, British
Columbia, and even to the Puget Sound cities, within sight of the Washington coal fields. The Pacific Mail steamships are now using it
altogether. The Southern Pacific Railroad use it in part. The Oregon Improvement Company, though a coal producer itself, buys the
Vancouver coal for its steamships and for its retail trade. The Gas Company used it exclusively for a few years back, and still draws
regular supplies. And from San Francisco it is shipped to all the towns tributary to that metropolis.
How does it get there ? In American bottoms principally. The harbor of Nanaimo is never deserted, and generally four or five ships may
be seen there -- all after their cargoes of coal. The company alone has over 160,000 tons of shipping under charter, and other ships
are chartered by the buyers, or come on their own account. In all, a fleet of 170 steamers and vessels were engaged last year in
transporting the coal, with an average carrying capacity of 1,600 tons.
It may be imagined that with such a demand, even the extensive mines of the company are inadequate. Such is the case, and many orders had
to be declined, especially during the past year.
White labor only is employed.
When the present drifts from the Esplanade shaft reach the new shaft, at Protection Island, they will be continued out to sea under the
Straits of Georgia. In ten years it is thought they will be out three or four miles under the Straits, and still making seaward. The
other shafts are being started at Northfield and Southfield.
The New Vancouver Company's head office is in London, and John Galsworthy, Esq., is its president. It has branch offices at San Francisco
and most of the coast cities. Its vast interests at Nanaimo are under the control of S. M. Robins, Esq., the general superintendent.
This was the first company to introduce diamond boring appliances on the Pacific coast. It has put down altogether 23,000 feet (nearly five
miles) of bore holes. It runs over 30 engines, of which several have been made by the Albion Iron Works, of Victoria. One hundred and
forty mules pass a melancholy existence in the bowels of the earth. The employees of the company number about 1,400. The miners work
about eight hours a day, and are almost universally contented and prosperous. The company have rarely had any disputes with their
employees, nor do they intend that the miners shall have just cause for complaint.
I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Robins, and, through him, Mr. Wm. McGregor, for an instructive trip through Shaft No. 1, and must
say that the praise bestowed on every hand at Nanaimo, upon the company's management, speaks well of the policy of Mr. Robins'
administration. Manufacture has been encouraged, and everything possible is being done by the company which can be done to make Nanaimo
a great city.
HAMILTON POWDER WORKS.
The works of the Hamilton Powder Company are situated at Northfield, about four miles from Nanaimo, upon a 165-acre reserve of land,
about 500 yards from the
PHAIR'S HOTEL, GOLDSTREAM.
|
|---|
