president's address. 579 



of light straw and pale greenish colour. Diamonds have been 

 found in other parts of the Colony, the largest on record weighed 

 about 51 carats. 



Mining specially for diamonds has been given up for some 

 years past ; but quite recently attention has again been given to 

 the deposits near Bingera. 



Asbestos. 

 This mineral is found in various localities, especially in the 

 Bathurst and Grundagai district ; in the latter, at Jones Creek, 

 about 12 tons of it valued at £323 have been raised. The veins 

 are very irregular in thickness and have not yet been thoroughly 

 prospected. Some of the asbestos obtained is of excellent 

 quality, being in long and flexible fibres, but the most of it is 

 short in the fibre and would probably answer for the manu • 

 facture of paint. 



Slates and Flagging. 



Roofing slates and slate flagging of good quality are obtained 

 from the quarries at Milla Murra near Bathurst, also near 

 Grundagai and Goulburn. 



Splendid sandstone flagging is quarried near Orange, Bur- 

 rowa, and at Buckingbong near Narrandera. 



Building Stones. 



Sydney is specially favoured with a very fine building stone 

 which is quarried from the beds of sandstone of the Hawkes- 

 bury formation which underlies the City. This great standstone 

 formation extends for many miles to the North, West, and South 

 from Sydney. The stone is of a light sepia brown colour, 

 sometimes white, and samples of it from Pyrmont of which the 

 Sydney Post Office is built, have withstood a test of 200 tons 

 pressure. 



Excellent sandstone is obtained from the Coal Measures, and 

 from the Devonian beds in various parts of the Colony. 



Granite is available in many districts. The gray granite of 

 which the large polished pillars in the Post Office and other 

 public edifices, and the large pedestal for the Queen's Statue 



All 



