Cussen. — Notes on the King Country. 331 



In summarising, it becomes apparent that the character of 

 the land and the quality of the soil derived from these various 

 rock formations must be very variable. Where the soil is derived 

 from the marls, shales, or limestone, it is rich and fertile. Some 

 of the soil of volcanic derivation is also good, but unfortunately 

 a great deal of the flat land and valleys are nearly rendered use- 

 less by the surface covering of pumice sands. There is, never- 

 theless, a large area of good settlement land amongst plateaus 

 and hill slopes, and extensive flats suitable for agricultural pur- 

 poses in the basins of the Waipa and Mokau. 



Gold. 



In reference to the mineral character and construction of the 

 main range, as affecting the probability of gold being found 

 there, I trust that I may not appear as propounding a theory or 

 offering an opinion in discussing this large and most interesting 

 branch of the subject. 



I have called tbat the main range which sweeps round to the 

 west of Taupo Lake and reaches the Maungatautari, including 

 Eangitoto and Tuhua Mountains, for these reasons : (1.) That 

 the slates are found along it in many places ; (2.) If the line of 

 the range be produced north and south, it will be seen to pass 

 nortbwards through the Thames, Te Aroha, and Cape Colville, 

 and the Great Barrier Island, and southwards through Tongariro 

 group to the southern side of the Kaimanawa Eange ; (3.) All 

 along this line are found in greater or less quantity the same 

 class of slates, pointing I think to the probability that this may 

 be at least a branch of the old palaeozoic mountain range which, 

 commencing in the south-east of Otago, sweeps round the West 

 Coast to Cook Strait, and thence is said to be continued 

 through the North Island in a north-easterly direction to the 

 East Cape. 



It is along this line that the gold deposits at the Thames and 

 Coromandel have been found, and also the reported gold disco- 

 veries made at various times at Maungatautari, Tuhua, and 

 Eangitoto. 



Mr. Herbert Cox, in his " Eeport on the Goldfields of the 

 Cape Colville Peninsula, 1882," says:— "The Cape Colville 

 peninsula consists of a hill of slates, overlaid by various volcanic 

 formations. The slates crop out in the lower parts of the 

 gullies cut by the creeks which fall into Cabbage Bay. And 

 although at some places the auriferous reefs are in country 

 which does not appear to have any direct connection with the 

 slate formation, yet at no great depths these rocks are certain 

 to occur." Slates appear along the Hauhungaroa Eange in a 

 precisely similar way as they do at the Thames and Coro- 

 mandel. They are also the basement rock of the district, as 

 appears from their being found at Wairere on the Mokau, north 



