78 
The first brown coal field examined by me lies upon North 
Island, 20 miles to the South of the city of Auckland in the Drury 
and Hunua Districts. The vicinity of the Capital and of the Waite- 
mata and Manukau Harbours, with which a communication may 
be very easily established by means of a rail road, render this 
coal field very important upon North Island. The merit of its 
discovery in 1858 belongs to my worthy friend the Rev. Mr. 
Purchas. 
The coal bearing strata are situated on the western declivity 
of the wooded ranges bordering the plains of Papakura and Drury 
in the East and South East, at a height of 200 to 300 feet 
above the level of the sea. In the more elevated portions of these 
ranges, in deep water courses, a formation of old primary slates, 
of dioritic aphanites, and of gray sandstones comes to light, which 
have their continuation southward in the Taupiri range; towards 
the North near Maraetai (East of the mouth of the Wairoa), on 
the coast of the Hauraki Gulf, they splinter into more or less 
vertical strata, and are afterwards again continued on the Island 
Wailieke. Upon these rocks the coal bearing strata arc deposited, 
while the tabular limestones, which are obtained from the quarries 
in the Wairoa District not far from Drury, and likewise the ba- 
saltic conglomerates covering the chains of hills South of Drury 
between the Manukau Harbour and the Waikato, belong to a higher 
horizon above the coal deposits. 
The coal, at the time of my visit, had been laid bare partly 
by natural openings on the sides of the ravines, partly by diggings 
of the settlers. Not being able to enter here into the whole detail 
of my observations, I have nevertheless to remark, that I could 
not convince myself of the existence of several coal seams one above 
the other, although I am willing to admit the possibility of such 
being the case. On the contrary, it appeared to me on the 
various points of observation always as one and the same bed with an 
average thickness of 6 feet, which, however, owing to faults and 
coals are corresponding with our brown coal, the anhydrous with the coals of a 
probably mesozoic age. 
