1919 ] 
Departmental Eeports. 
209 
brought about £67 per long ton of 2,240 lb., and the low-grade rather less 
than £14 per long ton. 
The production of amorphous graphite in 1917 was 8,301 short tons, 
valued in English money at about £15,308, or a little under £2 per short 
ton and a little over £2 per long ton. There were, however, wide variations 
in the prices, no doubt arising largely from the fact that some so-called 
amorphous graphite is true, finely crystalline graphite, and some is merely 
somewhat altered coaly matter (see earlier in this report). 
The prices received in 1917 for No. 1 or best flake at the mines varied 
from 13 to 18 cents (6jd. to 9d.) a pound ; Nos. 2 and 3 grades brought 
6 to 10 cents (3d. to 5d.) a pound ; and dust brought from J cent to 
cents (Jd. to fd.) a pound. Purchasers reported slightly higher prices, 
and occasionally paid as much as lOd. per pound for special lots. Best 
Ceylon graphite brought quite 50 per cent, more than the best American 
graphite. Madagascar graphite was sold at slightly lower prices than the 
latter. Korean graphite was sold at £9 7s. 6d. to £12 10s. per short ton, 
or £10 10s. to £14 per long ton. 
The United States Geological Survey considers that if freight and 
labour conditions are good the 1918 production of flake or crucible graphite 
will be double that of 1917, though many thousand tons will still require 
to be imported. The non-crucible graphite requirements will probably be 
fully supplied by domestic, artificial, and Mexican production. 
If any deposit of good flake graphite containing even 6 or 8 per cent, 
of graphite, provided this could be concentrated to a high grade, were 
discovered in an accessible New Zealand locality it could be worked at a 
profit under present conditions. The outlook for non-crucible graphite is 
not so good, but lead-pencil grades fetch fairly good prices, and there is 
no doubt that stove-polish can be profitably manufactured in this country 
if graphite containing 50 per cent, of graphitic carbon can be produced at 
a moderate cost. 
The Technical Analysis of Auckland Clays.* 
By A. B. Jameson, M.Sc., New Zealand, Government Research Scholar 
(1913-14), Department of Chemistry, Auckland University College. 
Introduction. 
The importance of the brick and tile industry to Auckland, and the 
possibility of developing local ceramic industries of a higher grade, make 
it essential to investigate fully the nature, composition, and properties 
of the Auckland clays. The subject is a very large one, and in the 
present paper an attempt is made rather to indicate the nature of the 
problems and to suggest avenues of further research than to supply 
complete and definite information on any special part of it. 
The clay beds of Auckland extend in an almost unbroken sheet from 
Riverhead, around the northern shores of the Waitemata Harbour, to Avon¬ 
dale and New Lynn. Between the latter place and the Manukau Harbour 
they are broken at the Whau portage, the same series reappearing in the 
* Summary of a report to the Education Department. Published by direction of 
the Board of Science and Art. 
17—Science. 
