Canterbury and Westland. 463 



similar stone from the White Bock quarries north of the Ashley 

 and some other localities has gained much favour with the public. 

 There have lately been opened quite a number of quarries in 

 the Canterbury province in many localities, as for instance in the 

 Weka Pass, the Waipara, Bampaddock, and Mount Brown, at the 

 Ashley and in Castlehill basin. In the southern portion of the pro- 

 vince the same free stone is of common occurrence, and will no doubt 

 be extensively used, and exported in years to come. 



Besides this calcareous stone, there are a few deposits of sandstone 

 occurring in the Waipara and Oamaru formations, which might prove 

 useful for building purposes, although they are generally of too 

 incoherent a nature for outdoor work. Some of the gritty sandstones 

 of the Grrey coal measures, at the West Coast, will however make an 

 exception, as they may be classed with the best building material of 

 that kind. Of igneous rocks, some of the fine grained granites and 

 syenites in Westland, and of the quartziferous porphyries of the 

 Malvern Hills and Mount Somers might be utilised for monumental 

 buildings, although their hardness, and consequently the difficulty 

 of working them, has hitherto prevented their introduction. The 

 Anamesites at Timaru have however been already extensively used for 

 a great number of buildings in that town and its immediate neighbour- 

 hood, and I have no doubt that the same material from the Malvern 

 Hills will be quarried in years to come for the same object. They 

 also would form valuable millstones. 



Amongst the volcanic rocks of Banks' Peninsula, a number of very 

 fine building stones of various colours, qualities, and value exist. 

 For rubble buildings two kinds of rock have principally been 

 used of late years, of which one is a dolerite flagstone, from the 

 so-called Guise Brittan quarries, and another a porphyritic dolerite 

 lava obtained principally in Tait's and Grreig's quarries. Besides these 

 two characteristic rocks, taken from well defined lava -streams, there are 

 a number of dykes offering excellent building and dressing stones. 

 Many of them will rub to a fine face. They are all mostly of a 

 trachytic nature. 



Limestones. 



The palseozoic rocks, although generally remarkably deficient in lime, 

 nevertheless yield some deposits of value for the lime-burner. There 

 are several localities in the Malvern Hills, such for instance as the 



