28 ain'xivees^iiy addeess. 



put down as "said" to have occ-urred — "said" to have been 

 worked — " said" to have been " discovered, but not seen." There 

 isj that is to say, no actual knowledge of them. Aud this is all 

 we learn from the Eeport as to the existence of coal of all ages 

 (for '•' lignite" and " tertiary" are included) under the title — 

 " Number and thickness of coal seams in Victoria." 



So far, so good. What Commissioners have seen should be 

 respected ; but unhappily the two thick seams spoken of in the 

 last report as occurring at Cape Paterson, they confess they 

 " did not see ; the excavations were filled in with rocks and sand, 

 and we had no means of descending the shafts." They add, 

 however, that they " accept the statements made regarding the 

 character and thickness of them as correct. (Heport, p. 11.) I 

 do not call in question the correctness of these statements, but I 

 would merely say that, including the three seams pointed out 

 above, the average thickness of the forty-nine seams is just a 

 little under (I would not rob them of a decimal even) four and a 

 half inches * 



I had intended to discuss this Eeport at considerable length, in 

 order to point out some errors in it, and to explain more fully 

 than I can now the history of tlie controversy which has taken 

 place about the ages of our various Australian Coal-fields. But 

 finding that what I had prepared on the subject would occupy 

 more time than we can spare this evening, I have withdrawn it in 

 order to use it in another way. 



I will merely say now, that although within a brief recent 

 period, as explained before, great progress has been made in the 

 exploring of large regions of Mesozoic age to the north of us, and 

 in the finding of coal therein, some of which is younger than our 

 JSTewcastle coal, yet I adhere to my opinion that the latter is 

 not Mesozoic, and maintain still, that the field in which it occurs 

 rests on Palaeozoic rocks having lower seams beneath, which 

 repose on other marine beds (so that they do "interpolate" each 

 other in the series), in this respect exactly resembling the older 

 coal-fields of Queensland ; and further, I maintain that both 

 series of coal beds hold the same characteristic fossil plant. 

 * See Apuendix C (p. 95). . 



