Geological Survey of Canterbwy. 43 



was printed in the New Zealand Government Gazette, Province of 

 Canterbury, Vol. IX., No. XVIII.*, in which some of the principal 

 results of my topographical and geological explorations were given. 

 This report was accompanied by several geological maps, a number 

 of geological sections, and a table of altitudes. 



The creation of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury gave me 

 also, a welcome opportunity, as its first President, to allude in the 

 opening address, delivered in the same month, to other scientific 

 researches and results, upon which I had not touched in the official 

 geological report. 



Visit to the Opawa Stream, 1862. 

 In September of the same year I paid a visit to the Opawa Stream 

 (South Canterbury) where a piece of auriferous quartz .had been found 

 by two gentlemen residing in Timaru, but our search for other speci- 

 mens was unsuccessful ; moreover, repeated prospecting of the alluvial 

 deposits did not reveal the least sign of the precious metal. There is 

 no doubt, however, that some portions of the ranges in which the main 

 sources of the Opawa take their rise, consist of rocks to a certain 

 extent auriferous, to which I shall allude more fully when treating of 

 the geology of that district. The goldfields in the neighbouring 

 Province of Otago having in the mean time gained such large 

 dimensions, and giving such magnificent results, it was of course of the 

 greatest importance to the population of this Province to have the 

 country examined where the Otago Gfoldfields reached nearest to the 

 boundary line. My examinations of the eastern portions of the 

 province had already shown — although there were some sedimentary 

 rocks near Burke's Pass, which might be auriferous — that all the rest 

 were of an un-aurif erous character, and it was therefore very desirable 

 to examine the rocks along the boundary line of both provinces and, 

 if possible, to follow them to the West Coast by way of Lake TTanaka, 

 where gold w r as reported to have been found across the Otago boundary 

 line in this province. Having been prevented, six months previously, 

 by a continuance of bad weather at the beginning of winter, from 

 examining the river Hopkins and its tributaries as carefully as I 

 intended, in order to settle the question if and to what extent 

 auriferous rocks occurred there, I proposed to revisit that portion of 

 the province. 



* JSotea on the Geology of the Province of Canterbury, New Zealand, October 24th, 1862. 



