president's address. 857 



rock was met with. 2 J feet in thickness ; this had to be blasted, 

 and a small supply of slightly brackish water was obtained from 

 the rock. The sinking from this to the 300 feet level was 

 through blue clay, containing marine shells. &c. The strata 

 gone through in boring was similar to that in sinking, — viz., 

 blue clay, with fossils. At 500 feet from surface it changed to 

 tough black clay, containing fossils as before ; this black clay 

 was not found in Mount Wilson well. This clay was so tough 

 that the tubing stuck in it, and boring had to go on without it. 

 At a little over 550 feet from the surface we came on another layer 

 of hard sandstone rock, 5 feet in thickness ; this was the most 

 difficult part of the work, as we now had no tubing to guide and 

 protect the jumper on its up and down stroke ; it caught on the 

 side of the bore, and at one time it was hoping against hope, 

 as no progress could be made. Having gone so far we could 

 not stop at that point ; at last we succeeded in getting through 

 the rock. The remainder of the distance we were able to bore 

 with the auger, it being through soft sandstone and no fossils in 

 it. When water was struck, the auger dropped about two inches, 

 into a white sand, the force of water being so great that it drove 

 the sand up the bore to the platform on which the men were 

 standing, six feet above the bottom of the shaft. The water 

 was quite hot when it first came up, so much so that it filled the 

 shaft with steam. Mount Wilson and Kapiti wells go far to 

 prove that there is a fountain of wealth lying hidden beneath the 

 surface at from 500 to 600 feet." 



The wells at Liverpool Plains have been in use for many years ; 

 the shafts sunk are in general large, too large, and rudely con- 

 structed, and the water for supplying sheep is commonly raised 

 by the most primitive method, with however, a few remarkable 

 exceptions, one of which I intend to quote ; but no attempt has 

 yet been made by the employment of the artesian system to 

 secure an elevated continuous flow of water, so needful for 

 practical purposes. Ninety to a hundred of these wells have 



