IV. — CHEMISTRY. 



Art. LXV. — On certain of the Mineral Waters of New Zealand. 

 By W. Skey, Analyst to the Geological Survey Department. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 12th January, 1878.J 

 At the instance of Dr. Hector I take up the subject of this paper, but all I 

 think necessary to do at present in this matter is to collate from our 

 several museum and laboratory reports statements of all the analytical 

 results wliich I have obtained upon these waters, and to compare them 

 with those of the celebrated European waters which ours resemble, stating 

 at the same time their therapeutic properties, either as deduced from then* 

 composition, or such as to my knowledge have actually been discovered 

 by direct observation. 



The arrangement of these waters here will necessarily be a geographical 

 one, for I find that to present them in anj^hing like a chemical order, that 

 is, classified according to their composition, would entail upon me a far 

 greater expenditure of labour and time than I can well spare, as several 

 compendious tables would in such case have to be re-cast, — in fact, 

 completely broken up, owing to then." arrangement being geographical, 

 dominantly so at least. The task of presenting our mineral waters in 

 chemical order I therefore leave for some future time, when the whole or 

 the greater number of them shall have been analyzed. 



There is this to be said in favour of the geographical arrangement I 

 propose, viz., that it will enable anyone to gather at a glance the nature 

 of all the waters of any ^particular district which have been reported on by 

 the Geological Survey Department. 



It will be observed that several of the analytical results I shall describe 

 are very meagre, but I have decided to enter all that has been accomplished 

 in the Colonial Laboratory upon these mineral waters, as a little informa- 

 tion even regarding any water may be valuable, and suffice for one's wants 

 until opportunities occur for making it fuller. 



The following is a list of the localities whence the mineral waters 

 described in this paper were obtained : — 



Lab. No, 



1. Onetapu Desert, Auckland ... ... ... ... 151 



2. Mahurangi, Auckland ... ... ...... 156 



3. Bay of Islands, Auckland ... 620 



