MINERALS OP THB PACIFIC LITTORAL. 403 



New Zealaxd's coal production for 1906 was 1,757,291 metric 

 tons, and for 1907, 1,937,080. The most important coalfield is that 

 of Westport, on the west coast of South Island. It produced, in 1907, 

 610,759 tons. The State Collieries at Seddonville and Point Elizabeth 

 gave 240,773 tons, and the Taupin Collieries in North Island 161,046 

 tons. The West Coast mines turn out a high-class bituminous coal, 

 and new mines are being opened in the Buller and Grey fields. About 

 a, third of the total coal production of the colony is broAvn coal, chiefly 

 from the southern portion of South Island. The remainder is bitu- 

 minous and semi-bituminous. New Zealand imported 216,213 long 

 tons of coal from Australia in 1906, and 221,114 in 1907, and ex- 

 ported in the same years 141,641 and 128,950 tons respectively. 



IRON. 



No country on the Pacific coast of North or South America has 

 yet taken rank as an important producer of iron ores, with the excep- 

 tion of Colombia, where extensive deposits are known t-o occur, but 

 they are only used for local requirements owing to transport diffi- 

 culties, and Lower California (Mexico), where it has recently been 

 reported that a contract has been made for the delivery of 500,000 

 tons from San Isdrio, on the coast 50 miles south of Ensenado, to the 

 Japanese Government. No infonnation as to the outcome of this 

 experiment is to hand. Other Mexican provinces, Guerrero and 

 Durango, possess very large deposits of iron ore, which may rise into 

 importance in the future. 



The Philippines contain several good deposits of iron ore, notably 

 a belt of magnetite 12 to 15 miles south of Luzon. A higli quality of 



