"NOTES ON THE COALFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND."

Otago Witness, Issue 2403, 22 March 1900, Page 65

"NOTES ON THE COALFIELDS OF NEW ZEALAND."

A " LIMITED SUPPLY."

(Fp.ou Oub Oty-n Correspondent.)

LONDON, January 5

At the last meeting of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, a paper entitled

"' Notes on tha Coalfields of New Zealand " v.cV lead by il,' James Park, M.In&t.M.M., a-ul a report of over two columns in length is give to it by the Alining Journal.

Ab an introduction to his subject. Mr Park remarked: '"fcJLeain is the great motive power of the age, consequently the gi owth and development oi inoiirtiicuuee and shipping mual be largely eloper dent on the production of coil. Tne po«*a— ion of coal ha.-., proved a dominant factor in industrial progicps, anJ recant eients have shown that s-ea power, the ambition of e\ery maritime nation, cmmol be maintained in pn effective form without it. A vague impr3o*ion prevails, in t,he minds of many thot t'le coal i\jsor\c ot New Zealand exist in almost illimitable quantity, and it mu3" therefore be oi toiae little interest to edscu-o brieHy the quality and qvaivcily ol thu Lcai avnil tble In Ihis colony.'

TJiree principal division into which New Zealand s workable coal divides itself are liien given, v. ith the physical characteristic:, and aveiajje composition as summarised by >Sir Jamc-j Hector. Then, after dealing; with the 3go of coal, Mr Park proceeds to say: "The seeming stratigraphieai conformity botweou die Oamaru sioue, the uppar member of tho coal measurer,, and Ihe Amuci limestone has caused some Now Zealand apolo^ie^ to fall into the trror oi correlating the grey marly ciay.s under the Oamaru »tone with the Amuri limestone of secondary age, and ilie "Waihao marly grecntands, containing a iauna teeming only with terlisry forms, with the glauronitic grsersands containing only tecondary forms. Henco the use of the term eieu.ceo-teriiavy vhich hos been aj)plied to this anomalous series, which is believed to have a truly tertiary frcies in one loco lit j" and a purely &ccondary fcicics in another. . . . " Coal has never been found below Amuri limestone or qlauconitic grcensands, and never will bo : but laige sumo ol money have been spent through misdirection in prospecting areas occupied hy these rocks, and show the necessity of a systematic knowledge of field geology to tho mining engineer engaged in the dc\ clopmaLt of coal aveai-. The recent age of Ihe coal measures of i\'cw Zealand preterits a mai\:ed distinction to that of the coal measure-; of Britain, Continental Europe, Noith America and China of carboniferous age, a'ltt the New South VTales measures of permiotriaFfic age. Up till nearly the middle of the piesent century, geologists were strongly imbued with the opinion that truo coals were confined to the strata lying between the old and new red sandfctone, and confirmed their belief by adopting the age-name 'Carboniferous' for the coal-bearing strata of Europe. Subsequent, discoveries of true coal in Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and even lower tertiary strata have conclusively shown that, gnen the necessary geological condition-*, coal could be formed in any period of the earth's history. It is perhaps worthy of mention that while the carboniferoua coals, are mainly composed of the remains of ferns, lycopodiuma, and other acrogens, the tertiary coals of New Zealand are the result of forest vegetation of-long-con-tinued growth, among which dicotyledons are largely represented, including the oak, laurel, cypress*, cycaclf, and conifers. The remains of ferns are also abundant. Since younger tertiary times New Zealand has presented the appearance of a massive mountain chain partially submerged in the ocean, presenting few areas of large extent and favourable situation for the growth and accumttlation of coal vegetation. The lesult of this configuration has bsen the production of numerous isolated coalfields, mostly of small extent, and all oi a littoral or marginal character."

After giving the estimates of the quantity of available coal, Mr Park's naper closed with the following observations: — "The numerous small coal areas scattered throughout the country have given ripe to the popular, hvii erroneous, impression Lhot coal exists in very large quantities ; but, as a matter of fact, the grand total of all the different varieties only contains the annual output of Great Britain about five times, while the vast undeveloped coal measures of Northern China, which have been described by Richthofen as covering an area- of many thousand miles, could hold all the coal of New Zealand in the corner of their waistcoat pocket. "In 1873 the output was 162,218 tons; in JBBB it was 613,985 tons; and in 1897, 840,713 tons, the rate of increase during the past t^even y«ars being about 30,000 tons a year. Jn 1897, 110,907 tons of coal were imported. With her comparatively limited supply of coal, it is quite obviou= that New Zealand can never be a serious competitor for the seabourne coal trade of the Pacific.

Messrs L. Bradshaw, T. Milne, A. Carter, G. Miller, and J. M'Gregor have been nominated as the moderate ticket for the Waitaki licencing election.

Watsonia O'Brienii, a Novelty of recent inIvoduction, is a pure white Flower of great Beauty, and admirably adapted ior cutting. Kiiiiio and Blair are now booking Orders for Bulbs to be delivered in the end of. March.