A CELEBRATED "FIND"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 84, 26 August 1912, Page 7

A CELEBRATED "FIND"

SHELL AND TIMBER UNDERGROUND. Feilding, August 23. A singular discovery has been made on Mr. Ernest Short's recently-acquired Cheltenham property, which goes to prove that the Cheltenham district affords considerable scope for geological studies. A short time ago the Rev. Mr. Miason located some underground streams on the property, and Mr. Short, with his characteristic enterprise, having decided to test the water problem, let a contract to a southern firm to put down some bores where the indications looked strongest. The contractors are now at work. When the first eighty odd feet was negotiated an immense deposit of shingle and shell was passed through, seeming to confirm the theory that an arm of the sea at one time covered these now fertile valleys and extended up tho Oroua valley to the hills. After passing through the bed of shingle a further depth of twenty odd feet was reached, when what appears to be a submerged timber swamp was reached, and there is seemingly quite a lot of swamp timber at the depth. The discovery is particularly interesting in view of the fact tEat, at a point about twelve chains from where the boring operations are in progress a well was being sunk some time ago, and at a depth of close on ninety feet a large totara log in a fine state of preservation was met with.