STONE FOR TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 January 1922, Page 6

STONE FOR TARANAKI.

POSSIBILITIES OF EGMONT. TE WERA LIMESTONE INFERIOR. A report from the director of the Geological Survey Branch of the Mines Department concerning stone for road making and similar purposes in Taranaki came before the New Plymouth Borough Council on Monday evening, having been forwarded by the Under-Secretary of the Department. The writer advocated a careful examination of the area tapped by the Waipuku branch line to Mount Egmont before any proposal involving the construction of a further line was proceeded with. He also asserted the superiority of Mount Egmont and Pouakai stone to the Te Wera limestone. Reference was first made to the offer of the Public Works Department to supply road-metal (limestone) from a quarry near Te Wera at prices considerably less than those for stone from its Mount Egmont quarry, and also to newspaper statements that some local bodies in Taranaki were importing road-metal from the Belmont quarries, Hutt Valley, at a cost, railage included, of 24s per cubic yard.

“It is suggested,” the report continued, “that excellent stone for both purposes (roads and harbor works) can be obtained from the Pouakai Range and that a branch railway should be built from New Plymouth or, better still, Oakura (on the proposed New Plymouth—Opunake railway), towards the point, where Kiri Stream crosses Carrington Road. In order to back the views advanced, some rather wild statements are made; for example, that all the Mount Egmont stone is of inferior quality because it is geologically young; that the zitone from Te Wera is far superior to the Mount Egmont stone, and so on. •‘Now the pertinent facts are somewhat

as follows: —Mount Egmont, as well as the Pouakai Range, can furnish inexhaustible supplies of road-metal of excellent quality. The fact z that a volcanic rock is geologically young does not make it inferior as a road-making material —the reverse is the case. Geologically, old volcanic rocks are apt to be much decomposed, and therefore are often of inferior quality. The Te Wera limestone will be very useful locally, but is inferior for roadmaking to the volcanic rocks of Mount Egmont and the Pouakai Range. I doubt very much whether it occurs in large quantity, though I have been informed that such is the case. It is obvious that to distribute Te Wera limestone in the area surrounding Mount Egmont, where rock of high quality is available in any quantity, is undesirable. Probably all the Te Wera stone is needed locally or for the district to the north of Te Wera, which is almost without road-making material. “Again, to tr ansport stone from the Hutt Valley to Taranaki, which has such great resources of its own, seems to be altogether wrong. There is no reason why Mount Egmont stone, or the stone avail-

able in the beds of the numerous streams radiating from Mount Egmont, should cost more to quarry (where necessary) and break than the Hutt Valley stone. Hence, practically the whole cost of railway carriage could surely be saved. “The main fact, to which I wish to draw attention, is that in Mount Egmont (including the Pouakai Range), and in the streams radiating therefrom there are inexhaustible supplies of excellent roadmaking material (andesite). It shou’l not be necessary to bring the inferior To Wera limestone south towards Mount Egmont; still less should it be necessary or desirable to rail road metal from the vicinity of Wellington into Taranaki. “It is hardly necessary to say that a careful survey of the many possible sources of road-metal in the Mount Egmont district should be made before any attempt to establish a quarry or quarries involving

the construction of a railway is made. The possibilities of the area tapped by the Waipuku—Mount Egmont railway ought to be ascertained. In all probability quarries can here be established capable of supplying half Taranaki with road-metal for generations. There may, of course, be still better sites thoroughy worth in vestigation.”