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as well as in various branches of local manufacture, such as brick 
and pottery making, and metallurgic processes. Its use is, and 
is likely to continue, strictly local. At present it is employed as 
a domestic fuel, mostly on the gold-fields, where it abounds, and 
where fuel of abetter class is scarce, if at all to be had ; or, inter- 
mixed with better fuel, by the poorer classes in large towns. It 
cannot compete, either as a domestic, steam, or other fuel, with 
New South Wales or British coals (Palmozoic), which uniformly 
command a higher price, and occupy a superior position, in all 
the New Zealand markets. 
In all the large towns of New Zealand, especially in Dunedin, 
Christchurch, Nelson, and Auckland, there is now a comparatively 
good supply of both local and foreign coals. The market prices of 
the former vary according as they are delivered at the pit-mouth 
or in the towns ; and those of the latter as they are delivered in 
the towns, or from the ships’ sides in harbours or roadsteads. 
The market prices of New Zealand Tertiary coals vary from 
7s. 6d. to 35s.— average, 10s. to 15s. — per ton, delivered at the pit ; 
and 40s. to 50s. — average, 45s. — delivered in towns. Those of New- 
castle (New South Wales), or Newcastle (English) coal, range from 
40s. to 80s. per ton, according as they are delivered from the ship 
or in town. 
IX. Produce of the Collieries. — As yet labour is limited and dear, 
and machinery defective ; so that the highest yield at present is 
100 to 150 tons per week (Fairfield Colliery, about six miles south- 
ward of Dunedin, Otago) ; the average elsewhere being 50 to 100 
tons. 
X. Flora of the Coal Measures. — Consists chiefly of the wood and 
leaves of exogenous trees^ probably in great measure coniferous ; and 
of ferns. The leaves include those of species of the following 
genera : — 
FaguSj Myrtifolium.^ 
Loranthophyllum^ Phyllitis. 
The general Tertiary flora comprises — 
a. The wood of various conifers, perhaps including the Kauri 
pine, which still exists, though within a limited area, in 
