118

C.-—2

are known to occur in small quantity. The district contains an inexhaustible supply of granite that could be used as a building-stone if desired. The cement possibilities of the Cape Foulwind district are described in a separate report, printed on later pages. A few further remarks may be made under the headings of (1) coal, (2) alluvial gold, and (3) auriferous-quartz lodes. (1.) Goal. The coals of the Westport district are believed to occur in two series of different geological ages. The older series, probably Eocene in age, but possibly late Cretaceous or Cretaceo-Eocene, contains the well-known bituminous-coal seams worked near , Denniston, Millerton, and Seddonville. The younger series, of Miocene age, contains the brown coal and lignite that occur near Cape Foulwind, at Charleston, and in the eastern part of the Buller Gorge. Only small areas of the bituminous-coal measures were examined during the past year, these having been almost completely surveyed during the previous season. Full consideration was given to the coal possibilities of the relatively down-faulted lowland area near Westport, and a special report thereon was prepared for the Westport Harbour Board (see pp. 124-126), Immediately east of Cape Foulwind small seams of lignite outcrop in the Miocene rocks that here form cliffs along the seashore. These seams are of no economic value at this point, but inland may thicken. At Tauranga Bay, south of Cape Foulwind, several lignite-seams of good quality outcrop on the beach. These, which are separated from one another by layers of shale of no great thickness, are from 1 ft. to perhaps 4 ft. thick. At Charleston, a few miles southward, a large seam of lignite outcrops in many places, and over an area of some hundreds of acres has very little cover. It forms a useful fuel for local use. In general it may be said that lignite will probably be found under much of the lowland country between Westport and Charleston. It is evident, however, that the thickness, and, to a minor extent, the quality, vary. Moreover, since the dip is eastward, the depth at which lignite occurs away from the coastal belt is considerable. The thin seams of pitch-coal occurring in the Buller Gorge east of Hawk's Crag have already been mentioned. The brown coal at Burley's is markedly lower in water and sulphur than the Charleston lignite, and therefore of decidedly better quality. It is an excellent coal for household use. In the same horizon are outcrops of coal in Nada Creek (a tributary of the Blackwater), in Pensini Creek, in Slug Creek (a tributary of Pensini Creek), and near Three-channel Flat. The area of brown coal indicated by these outcrops is considerable, but it is only part of a much larger field that includes the greater part of the Inangahua Valley from Inangahua Junction to Reefton. The following analyses made in the Dominion Laboratory indicate the composition of the lignites and brown coals in the area examined last season : —

(1.) From Tauranga Bay. (2.) From Charleston. (3.) From John Burley's mine, Buller Gorge. (4.) From Nada Creek (station 46). (5.) From west bank of Pensini Creek. (6.) From thin seam near Hawk's Crag (pilch-coal). (2.) Alluvial Gold. In bygone years the chief centres of alluvial-gold mining in the Buller-Mokihinui Subdivision were Charleston; Addison's; Bradshaw's; the terraces north-east of Westport known as German Terrace, Giles Terrace, Fairdown Terraces, &c. ; and Mokihinui. For many years the banks of the Buller near Berlin's were worked, and though not rich, must, in the aggregate, have yielded a considerable amount of gold. South of Westport several sluicing claims are still at work near Bradshaw's, Addison's, and Charleston, but the terraces to the north-east and the Mokihinui diggings are now all but deserted. A little gold is still obtained by beach-combers near Westport and Charleston. An almost untouched field for alluvial mining has lately been brought into some prominence by the success of the Carthage Gold-mining Company, which is working a buried black-sand lead near the sea-coast, west of Fairdown, by hydraulic sluicing and elevating.

(1.) (2.) (3.) (4.) (5.) (6.) Fixed carbon Volatile hydrocarbon Water Ash 36-75 33-55 38-20 44-53 19-20 i 19-17 5-85 | 2-75 40-62 43-26 13-52 2-60 37-60 38-67 18-65 5-08 44-16 44-26 10-22 1-36 54-73 20-86 7-19 17-22 Total sulphur (per cent.) Evaporative power per pound (from calorimeter) Practical evaporative power (assuming 60 per cent, efficiency) Character of coke 100-00 100-00 10000 10000 100-00 10000 5-57 9-29 600 4-50 11-55 4-28 4-18 11-63 0-50 5-57 6-93 6-98 Noncaking Noncaking Noncaking Noncaking Loose Pulverulent.