D.—No. 3

30

PAPERS RELATING TO THE

Act Amendment Act, for the purpose of erecting a wharf and tramway at Preservation Inlet, which is required for the working and further development of the coal seam there, on which the Company have already spent between £2,500 and £3,000 in prospecting, and which they have ascertained to be of very large extent. I need scarcely point out the advantages the Inlet possesses as a coaling station, being in a direct line of the Australian steamers to and from New Zealand ; and the water being of sufficient depth to admit the largest vessel, the cost of coal put on board ship would be about one-third the price paid for Newcastle here. As Captain Hutton is at present in Invercargill, I would respectfully suggest the advisability of his proceeding with his staff and boring instruments to the Inlet, and report the fact as stated to your Honor. The survey and sketch maps, showing the position of the coal deposits, are at your service ; and any other information you may require I shall be glad to afford. I am, &c, W. Oram Ball, The Hon. W. Eeeves, Eesident Minister for Middle Island. Hon. Secretary.

No. 15. Mr. Maude to Mr. W. O. Ball. Office of Eesident Minister for the Middle Island, Sir, — Dunedin, 22nd January, 1872. I have the honor, by the direction of Mr. Beeves, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th inst., requesting, on behalf of the Preservation Inlet Coal Company, that money may be granted under the provisions of "The Immigration and Public Works Amendment Act, 1871," for the purpose of erecting a wharf and tramway at Preservation Inlet. In view of considering the application, I have to request that you will be good enough to supply the Government with information on the following points : — 1. Is the Preservation Inlet Coal Company registered ? 2. If so, what is its nominal capital and proposed number of shares, and how much has been paid up ? 3. If not, of whom does the Company consist ? 4. What amount has been already expended, and what work has been done to represent such expenditure ? 5. A statement as to what the property consists of, its tenure, extent, and to whom and by whom a lease, if any, has been granted, and for what term. 6. Whether it is a public reserve under the Act of 1854; and if so, whether it has been Crown granted to the Superintendent, and whether any special conditions are attached to the grant. 7. How far the coal mine has been surveyed, and what is its supposed extent. 8. What length of tramway is projected, and whether any reliable estimate of probable cost of tramway and wharf has been made, and how much of such sum it is intended to ask Government to advance ; and any other information of a special character which will enable the Government to arrive at a conclusion, so soon as full particulars may be to hand. I have, &c, Thomas Wm. Maude, W. O. Ball, Esq. Secretary.

No. 16. Dr. Hector to the Under Secretary, Public Works. Sir, —■ Geological Survey Office, Wellington, 19th June, 1872. I have the honor to enclose Dr. Haast's report on the present condition of the coal mine at Shag Point, and generally on the coal-bearing formation in the N.E. District of the Province of Otago. I have, &c, The Under Secretary for Public Works. James Hector.

Enclosure in No. 16. Preliminary Eeport on the Shag Point Coal Fields, Otago, by Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.B.S. During the past autumn, at the request of the Director of the Geological Survey, I paid a visit to the Shag Point district, in order to report on the present state of the coal mine which is worked there, and give my opinion on the value of the coal measures, their relations to the limonitic sandstones overlying them unconformably, and with which, in other localities, brown-coal seams are associated • also to institute a comparison between them and beds of similar character in other parts of the Colony with which lam acquainted. I found the beds in question not only of great scientific interest to the geologist, but also of considerable practical value to the Colony, as the following notes, containing some of the principal results of that examination, will readily show. The Shag Point coal measures are the upper portion of a littoral formation of great thickness consisting mostly of conglomerates, gritty sandstones, and shales, with seams of pitch coal, deposited on the slopes of the Horse Eanges, running at a distance of about three miles inland, parallel with the coast. This series has a thickness of several thousand feet, and is divided into two portions, of which