1919.] 
Departmental Reports. 
117 
lodes, and two or more such bunches might be connected in an irregular 
kind of way. The ore shipped contained over 70 per cent, of manganese 
dioxide, and was generally low in impurities, though in some cases these 
reached 20 per cent., including 4 to 10 per cent, of iron oxides. Phos¬ 
phorus in the samples analysed by Pond was present to the extent of 0*188 
to 0-3 per cent. 
In the western part of Pakihi (or Pahiki) Island, a small island in the 
Hauraki Gulf (south of Ponui Island), the red and brown jasperoid “ slates ” 
(argillites), according to Hutton, contain numerous bands of manganese- 
ore, about an inch thick. These generally run parallel to the cleavage 
(? bedding) of the “ slates,” but in places are at right angles to it. On 
the west coast of the island large quantities of manganese-ore could be 
obtained at small expense (Hutton, Trans., vol. 1, 1869, p. 167 ; 2nd ed., 
1875, p. 113). The ore appears to be almost entirely psilomelane, with 
possibly a little pyrolusite. 
In the Waimarama district, near Red Island peninsula, manganese-ore 
in some quantity was discovered.many years ago. A proposal to work the 
ore was abandoned, probably owing to the falling price of manganese-ore 
and the rise in freight when steamers displaced the sailing-vessels that used 
to ship heavy ores at low rates on account of their value as ballast. 
There are numerous small deposits of manganese oxides near the city 
of Wellington, and if there were any local industry requiring manganese 
some of these could be worked. A fairly large deposit of manganite, 
according to Skev, was discovered near Ohariu about 1881 {Lab., No. 16, 
1882, pp. 37-38)/ 
Manganese-ore was discovered south of Taieri Mouth in 1862 by Sir 
James Hector, and its occurrence there was mentioned by Hutton in 1875. 
About 1890 further discoveries were made in the same locality by Mr. F. 
Joseph and others. A considerable amount of prospecting was done, and 
100 tons or more of ore was mined and exported. The workings were 
inspected and reported upon by Hector, who considered that there was a 
manganese-bearing stratum, three times repeated from east to west, owing 
to folding of the strata. His section shows an anticline, followed to the 
west by a syncline. At one place Hector saw 6 ft. of solid ore, together 
with an equal thickness of manganese-impregnated rock. Analyses of the 
ore showed that it was mainly manganite of good quality, containing in 
some samples 87 per cent, of manganese sesquioxide. The better samples 
contained from 48 to 58*1 per cent, of metallic manganese. Several com¬ 
plete and partial analyses are quoted by Hector. These show that oxidized 
compounds of copper, cobalt, barium, and zinc are present in small quan¬ 
tity, but nickel was not found. This element, however, has been identified 
as present. 
Prices of Manganese-ore, etc. 
Fifty or sixty years ago, when manganese dioxide was extensively used 
for the manufacture of chlorine, good prices for ores high in dioxide (pyro¬ 
lusite, psilomelane) were obtained. The spent manganese liquor (manganous 
chloride) was either run to waste or regenerated by a troublesome and costly 
process (Charles Dunlop’s). In 1867 a much more perfect and less expen¬ 
sive process was invented by Walter Weldon, and during the next ten or 
twenty years was universally adopted, with the result that the price of 
manganese-ores fell 50 per cent, or more ; and had it not been for the 
use of ferro-manganese, or spiegel, in the Bessemer process of steelmaking 
