170 Voijagc of the Kovara. 



According to the geological researches of Dr. Hochstetter,- 

 it would appear that the province of Auckland abounds in 

 good coal that would repay working, especially a brown 

 coal occurring in the tertiary period, which greatly re- 

 sembles that of Bohemia and Styria. The plains of Papa- 

 kura and Drury on the eastern shore of Manukau Harbour 

 are part of a rolling country, and are but little above the 

 level of the sea. S.E. and S. they are bomided by a thickly- 

 wooded range of hills from 1000 to 1500 feet in height, 

 running in a direction from S.W. to N.E., or from the 

 Waikato to the Wairoa ; it is only in the vicinity of Drury 

 that a portion of this chain trends nearly N.E., rising with 

 a gentle slope from the level land below. At various points 

 on these acclivities strata of coal have been discovered partly 

 by the action of water, partly by human labour, the extent of 

 which, owing to the impenetrable forest vegetation and the 

 consequent lack of natural indications, can only be ascer- 

 tained by boring. 



The coal is of the best quality of that kind of brown coal 

 generally called cannel coal, and is occasionally met with 

 in immense seams. The average thickness of the seam is 

 about six feet. The Drury and Hunua coal-fields seem indeed 

 to be but a part of a far more extensive tertiary formation, 

 which occurs pretty universally throughout the province of 

 Auckland. The obvious practical value and commercial im- 

 portance of this New Zealand coal can only however be defi- 

 nitely proved, when the various manufacturing processes in 



