1921 .] 
Departmental Reports. 
23 
The following table shows the amounts of coal in workable seams above 
water-level contained in the spurs between the streams. As stated above, 
the seams disappear beneath gravels that cap the spurs, and the coal- 
bearing areas cannot be accurately defined without extensive boring. The 
thickness of the seams is measured at right angles to the roof and floor, 
but in estimating the coal areas no account has been taken of the dip of 
the seams. Each acre of coal 1 ft. thick is considered to contain 1,500 tons 
of coal. 
Spur. 
Seam. 
Thickness on 
South-west 
Side of Spur. 
Thickness on 
North-west 
Side of Spur. 
Average 
Thickness. 
Area. 
Tonnage. 
Between Reefton and Ajax 
No. 1 
Feet. 
H 
Feet. 
7 
Feet. 
5* 
Acres. 
47 
397,750 
Creek 
No. 2 
12-16 
15 
14* 
47 
1,092,750 
No. 3 
Unknown 
Unknown 
• • 
0 e 
No. 4 
? 20 (not seen) 
21 
20 
45 
1,350,000 
Between Ajax and Burke 
No. 1 
7 
Not known 
? 6 
2* 
• • 
Creeks 
No. 2 
17 
16 
16 
u 
175,000 
No. 3 
6 (shale) 
5 coal 
« • 
. . 
No. 4 
25 
25 
25 
30 
1,025,000 
Between Burke and Stony 
No. 1 
Not known 
2* 
. . 
» . 
Batter Creeks 
No. 2 
16 
14 
15 
16 
360,000 
No. 3 
5 
6 
51 
11 
90,750 
No. 4 
25 
? 20 (half- 
20 
4 
120,000 
Between Stony Batter and 
Coal-me« 
rsures in some 
concealed 
outcrop) 
parts at leas 
b disti 
irbed ; 
only one 
Madman Creeks 
Between Madman and Pain- 
outcrop known. 
No. 1 Not known 
killer Creeks 
No. 2 
Not known 
• • 
• • 
• • 
No. 3 
? 5 
Burning seam; thickness unknown. 
No. 4 
30 
16 
20 
80 
2,400,000 
North side of Waitahu . . 
Upper 
16 
To fault 
16 
3 
72,000 
Middle 
5 
To fault 
5 
2 
15,000 
Lowest 
? 10 
. , 
• • 
, , 
# # 
Between Boatman and 
Lowest 
12 
20 
16 
85 
2,040,000 
Little Boatman Creeks 
Total .. 
• • 
9,138,250 
The writer considers this estimate conservative. No account has been 
taken of the coal in a seam unless outcrops that can reasonably be referred 
to the same seam are known on both sides of a spur. For this reason the 
coal south of Reefton and that in the upper seams of the Boatman Creek 
area are not included in the estimate. On the other hand, the coal already 
extracted has not been allowed for. 
To test the seams of the Burke Creek area to the dip, bores should be 
sunk in the flat north-west of the hills. The tram-lines on this flat provide 
easy access, and bores placed at intervals of, say, 20 chains on or near the 
lines along Madman, Stony Batter, and Ajax Creeks would test the coal- 
measures. In the case of the first-mentioned stream the first bore should 
be 20 chains from the main adit, and in Stony Batter and Ajax Creeks 
20 chains from No. 2 seam. On a high gravel terrace at a point about 
110 chains east-north-east from the Reefton Railway-station a bore 500 ft. 
deep has recently been drilled in search of coal. It penetrated gravel and 
clay bands for the first 50 ft., below which were beds of soft sands, sandy 
