379 



placed in barges which take it down to deep water. Notwithstanding the extra 

 expense arising from repeated handling of the coal, it is delivered alongside 

 the colliers at 14s. per ton. The coal, when carefully selected, has very 

 powerful heating qualities, and burns with a rich gaseous flame. It has been 

 repeatedly tested, and favourably reported on, by steam vessels, and its only 

 drawback is that it is friable, and is frequently shipped without the impurities 

 containing sulphur having been removed by screening. At Wangarei small 

 colliers can ascend to the point above where the tramway terminates, so that 

 coal is put on board for 13s. per ton. The coal is however very different in its 

 quality from that at Kawa kawa, notwithstanding that it appears to be either 

 the same or an equivalent seam in the same geological formation, having a 

 larger proportion of ash and water, and a corresponding deficiency of gaseous 

 matters. 



Twenty miles south of Auckland, coal mines have been worked for many 

 years near Drury, where there is an extensive coal field. According to 

 Professor Hochstetter there is only one seam, having an average thickness of 

 six feet. The quality of the coal is that of common Brown coal with over 20 

 per cent, of combined water, but from its containing large quantities of fossil 

 resin, it proves a very valuable fuel. 



On the Waikato river there is a still larger extent of the same coal 

 formation, containing one principal coal seam which is eight' to twelve feet 

 thick. Captain Hutton is of opinion, as the result of careful survey, that in 

 this field there is about 140,000,000 tons of coal available, without pumping 

 or mechanical appliances for raising the coal.* This coal is extensively mined 

 for supplying the steamers that ply on the Waikato river, and answers well 

 for that purpose. 



There are no other coal mines in the North Island except those above 

 mentioned, but in the district between the Mokau and the Wanganui rivers, 

 there are extensive coal seams, and also from near the East Cape, on the 

 opposite side of the Island, samples of coal of very superior quality have been 

 obtained. 



On the west coast of the Province of Nelson, there are several distinct 

 coal fields, the most northerly of which, termed the Pakawau field, is about 

 thirty square miles in extent. The coal occurs as several seams, none yet 

 found exceeding four feet in thickness, at the base of a sandstone and shale 

 formation 1500 feet thick. Mines have been opened at Pakawau, and 

 Collingwood in Golden Bay, and in the beautiful little harbour of West Wan- 

 ganui, on the West Coast. The coal varies in quality, but is, on the whole, 

 more valuable than that found in the northern fields. The quantity of coal 

 raised from this district has not been great, as the best seams are in rather 

 inaccessible positions, but if they are opened up with caution and proper 

 economy, there is no reason why they should not prove remunerative. 



In connection with this coal field, I should mention the deposit of 

 Plumbago or Black Lead, which has been mined to a small extent near 

 Collingwood, as it is probably derived from an altered portion of a coal seam. 

 The Plumbago is, however, of good marketable quality, seven tons exported in 

 the manufactured form, having an approximate value of £1400.+ 



The Buller coal field occupies a narrow strip along the coast north of the 

 Bxiller river, forty miles in length and seven in width, and is peculiar from the 

 great elevation at which it occurs. The formation consists of quartzose grits, 

 200 to 300 feet thick, with a single seam of very pure coal, ten feet thick, near 



* See ' ' Geological Report on the Lower Waikato District, " by Captain Hutton, p. 4. 



+ For comparative value of this Plumbago, see " Juror's Kept. N. Z. Exhibition, 

 1865," p. 417. 



