Fourteenth Annual Report. 517 
there are yet, in all probability, as rich auriferous belts of country at lower 
levels as have hitherto been worked near the surface, and that gold will be 
found to quite as great depths as it is practicable to work. Besides this, he 
has illustrated the structure and behaviour of the reefs by numerous 
sections, and has also prepared a plan and section of the Ohinemuri and Te 
Aroha Districts. 
During part of April he was engaged in an examination of the Blue 
Mountains, on the northern side of the Shag Valley, with the special object 
of determining the position of the Blue Mountain limestones. These he has 
shown are interstratified with slate and sandstone of Lower Carboniferous 
age, which form the first range north of the Shag River, and are separated 
from the Te Anau series of Upper Devonian age, which form the next 
range by a large fault which traverses the country in a N. 65° W. mag- 
netic direction, and has a downthrow to the S.E. 
Mr. Cox has also made special reports on the Woodstock Gold Field and 
the Ross and Humphrey’s Gully mining claims on the West Coast, and has 
examined the lignite deposits at Norsewood, which he reports to be of an 
inferior character. 
During the latter part of November, and part of December, Mr. McKay 
was engaged in collecting moa bones at Motanau and examining the country 
between Motanau and the Cheviot Hills. During this work the principal 
result arrived at, from an economic point of view, was the discovery of an 
outcrop of hematite about six feet wide, associated with the Triassic rocks 
of the coast range near Motanau. An analysis shows that this ore is 
specially adapted for the manufacture of hematite paint. After this he was 
engaged in Museum work during the month of January, and during Febru- 
ary and the early part of March he examined the antimony deposits of the 
Carrick Ranges in Otago and collected fossils from the coal strata of the 
Bannockburn. He reports that there are three lodes which are apparently 
convergent, the thickest of these being two feet at its widest part; an out- 
crop of antimony can be traced at places on the surface from Alexandra, at . 
the Manuherikia Junction, to the hills west of the Nevis Bluff, on Kawarau 
River, a distance of over twelve miles. During April and May he was 
engaged, at the request of the Hon. the Minister of Mines, in making a 
typical collection of the rocks of the Reefton District in duplicate. One of 
these collections was deposited at Reefton as the nucleus of a museum. 
While thus engaged he made a detailed examination of the relations of the 
various beds and confirmed the views previously held concerning them. He 
also gained important information concerning the extent of the coal-bearing 
areas, proving their probable continuance, as a basin, across the Inangahua 
Valley, comparatively near the surface about Reefton, but at much deeper 
