v.—«

The opinion may be expressed that the Taffy stockwork is worthy of being prospected with a view to its development on a large scale. With a 40- or 60-stamp battery worked by the water-power easily obtainable in the neighbourhood, ore of the tenor of that now being handled would prove very profitable. 3. Coal. —Within the last few years the development of the Paparoa coal-seams lias added greatly to the amount of available coal in the Greymouth Subdivision. From the detailed investigation lately carried out it will be possible to make an approximate calculation of the amount of coal that may be mined from the coalfield. The coal of the Paparoa seams is bituminous to almost semi-anthracitic in grade. If dirt and stone bands be excluded to the same- extent as is possible in ordinary mining, the percentage of ash is low, and that of sulphur very low. The coal cakes readily, forming, as a rule, a hard coke of excellent quality. A characteristic of the Paparoa coals is their wonderful resistance to weathering, the outcrops as a rule being fully equal in quality to the portions of the seams under cover. A defect is their somewhat general friability, so that in the processes of mining and transportation a large percentage of slack is produced. This feature, however, if proper grates are used, and the coal is skilfully fired, need not seriously impair the calorific value. On the whole, then, the Paparoa coals may be considered excellent for steam-raising. For automatic firing, for dust firing, and for use with suction-gas engines and ordinary producer-gas plant, the Paparoa coals are probably the best in New Zealand. Owing to faulting and irregular folding, the economic mining of the Paparoa seams throughout the coalfield becomes difficult. The deep valleys formed by stream erosion on the flanks of the Paparoa Range afford numerous outcrops, thus enabling the structural relations to be more easily made out and perhaps permitting readier access, but have the disadvantage of cutting the workable portions into blocks that must be mined separately. The loss of much coal by denudation is also a serious matter. From all these factors it follows that the profitable extraction of the greatest possible amount of coal from the Paparoa Beds becomes a problem requiring the highest degree of mmmc and engineering skill. With respect to the coal being mined from the Brunner Beds, it has been mentioned on a former page that the State Mine seams (Point Elizabeth), the Brunner Mine seams, and the Blackball Mine seams are in the one horizon. Whether any one of these seams can be correlated with any of the. others is a disputed point, and it will therefore be best to leave the full discussion of this matter to the detailed report. However, it may be stated that the writer's provisional conclusion is that the two seams of the Blackball Mine are probably equivalent to the Brunner Main Seam and the Brunner Rider (a small seam found overlying the Brunner Main Seam), whilst the two seams being worked in the Point Elizabeth State Coal-mine belong to a somewhat lower position in the Brunner horizon (the term "horizon" being here used in a rather wide sense). (4.) Petroleum. —No boring or other prospecting work having been undertaken at Kotuku during the past year, no new data dealing directly with the oil-occurrences have become available. The investigation of the coal-measures, however, has considerable indirect bearing on the subject. On a former page it was stated that probably the coal-measures of the Paparoa Range extend beneath the known Miocene beds of the Grey Valley. To prove the existence of the coal-measures in the Grey Valley by deep boring is important in connection with the oil-occurrences, for the following reasons :— (1.) The coal-measures are probably the source of the, oil. (2.) The sandstones of the coal-measures would afford good reservoirs for oil. (3.) A large and permanent oilfield can hardly be expected unless the known Miocene beds are underlain by other sedimentaries of younger age than the Greenland rocks, and any such sedimentaries must almost necessarily be of coal-measure age. IV. Miscellaneous Resources. In the Grey Valley milling-timber is still fairly abundant, but the more accessible portions of the bush will soon be cut out. The valleys and lower slopes of the Paparoa Ranges will afford a plentiful supply of mining-timber for, perhaps, the next ten or fifteen years. Water-power for the present requirements of the neighbouring mines could be obtained from the Blackball and Roaring Meg creeks. At present, however, most of the water from these streams is taken up for alluvial-mining purposes. When in the future it is found necessary to install coal-washing machinery, there will be no difficulty at any of the mines in obtaining abundant water-supplies for this purpose.

MR. E. de C. CLARKE, LATE ASSISTANT GEOLOGIST. Following my preliminary investigations in the Taranaki oilfield, Mr. E. de C. Clarke commenced detailed examinations in the Waitara Survey District (the eastern part of the New Plymouth Subdivision) with the objects of locating suitable sites for boring in that area, and of obtaining certain information regarding the geological structure. This information was required in order to elucidate certain problems connected with the geology of the whole of the Taranaki oilfield. Mr. Clarke unfortunately did not complete these investigations, as he resigned his position in February in order to accept a demonstratorship in geology in Auckland University. Mr. Clarke reports as follows on the results of the work actually accomplished :

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