87 
from the latter, and even to be quite comparable with the best 
English coal. 1 
The discovery of coal deposits of such thickness close to the 
sea coast has greatly roused the attention of the population in the 
two Provinces of Nelson and Canterbury, winch are the first con- 
cerned in it. 2 In 1865 only one mine had been opened in this 
field on the North side of the Grey, at seven miles from its mouth. 
From this point the coal is supposed to extend on the rise for 
about four miles, in an easterly direction. Arrangements are also 
made for working the coal on the South side of the river, which 
lies in the Province of Canterbury, 3 and for the construction of a rail- 
way to convey it to a point on the river where it can be shipped 
in vessels of six to seven feet draught. 
At Preservation Inlet, in the Province of Otago, a bituminous 
black coal occurs of the same description as the Grey coal, but 
no workable seams have been discovered as yet. 
The Pakctwau , Buller and Grey coal, — as far as I am able 
to judge, — I take to be of one and the same, probably mesozoic, 
age. There are reasons for comparing that coal formation with coal 
deposits such as are found to exist in Europe in the Oolite of Eng- 
land (Yorkshire and Sutherland), or in the Wealden of northwest- 
ern Germany. These geological questions, however, will be fully 
1 The Grey coal is described as very compact; its color black, lustre dull. 
The fresh fracture has a glistening appearance. It possesses a slatey cleavage. Powder 
black; ash light brown. The coal puffs up slightly when heated, and gives 68.37 per- 
cent of metallic coke. 
2 The Grey or Mawhera River forms the boundary of the two provinces. 
3 At the present time, says Dr. Hector (Report on Coal Deposits 1866), the 
great obstacle to the development of lliese coal mines is the high price of labour, 
owing to the attraclions offered by the gold-fields, but when this excitement has 
subsided, a large portion of the present population of that district, which is estimated 
at 15,000 persons, will doubtless become permanent, and, notwithstanding the present 
temporary check, the importance of these coal-fields will be much sooner estab- 
lished than if the auriferous deposits had not been discovered, and the Westland 
District had still remained as inaccessible as it was twelve months ago. At present 
the output from the coal mine is about 250 to 300 tons per week and is taken down 
the river in canoes and in 16, ton barges, and delivered alongside the vessels at 
40 s. per ton. 
