A VALUABLE EARTH DEPOSIT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10024, 21 April 1910, Page 4

A VALUABLE EARTH DEPOSIT.

Just between Kingsland and Mount Roskil! there is a swamp, and from this swamp is bsing taken a product of considerable commercial value, says the "Auckland Star." This product is an infasorial earth, and as its name implies, it is composed of the fine shell coverings, or skeletons, of minute infusoria that represent one ol the lowest forms of ilfe. They are now classed as belonging to tne vegetable kingdom, but are, in a way, a connecting link between animal and veg3table forms. The swamp being mined at Kmgsland contains large beds of this earth running to an unknown depth—in some spots the workings are eight feet below the aurface, and the supply still continues. It can be understood how countless ages have had to pass before these minute animalculae could with their remains form such deep deposits. The material is of the nature of a chalk, similar to precipitated chalk in fineness and consistency, but of much less proportional weight; instead of being a limestone formation as chalk is, this substance is pure silica, and can be put to pnany different uses—it makes a fine glaze for china ware, a splendid metal polish, and with very little preparation It can be made into an excellent face, or tooth powder. In fact the most of the preparations mentioned are made of this infusorial earth. The owners of the Kingsland deposit are shipping the earth to Sydney, where it is prepared and retailed in other forms.