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346. Can you conceive of any undue quantity of sediment being carried into this drain or pits ? —No; there was not a sufficient quantity of water to carry any in, and the ground was not such as would give way readily to water. 347. In cutting the drain through, how much water was there in it ?—Well, I have had a little to do with drives, on diggings and what not, and it is nothing I would have taken any note of as a wet drive. Of course, a man would get a little moist rubbing against the sides and lying against them when working, but there was nothing to call wet, not even to wet a man through in the whole of a day's work. 348. Have you noticed the water that flows from that drain at various times ?—Yes : it is much less now than it was at first, but I could not give it by quantity except by a sort of comparison. 349. Well, comparing it with what it is, was it three times as much?—l do not think it was ever four times —say three times. It dried away rapidly ; and another thing was, we finished the drain after a spell of very wet weather. Indeed, its construction was interrupted by wet weather. 350. Then, do you think you have seen that ground in an average bad condition ?—Yes, I am sure we saw it in its worst condition ; it has improved every day since. lam sure we saw it in ita worst condition, unless we go back to another very wet winter, when, of course, no one saw it, because the ground was not open. 351. Is this a section of a pit or prospecting-shaft that was put down at the time (June, 1885) ? —Yes; it is a section of a pit or shaft put down behind the airing-court to ascertain the nature of the strata. 352. Is that, to the best of your knowledge and belief, correct?— Yes ; I took it, I plotted it. I take it to be as correct as any one can ascertain strata of this nature. A great many of the strata ran into each other. You cannot say with certainty where one ends or begins, to inches, and sometimes feet. [Section and plan of prospecting-shaft, with letters, put in and marked " 11."] The shaft was sunk deeper into the rock because we were prospecting, and then, afterwards, when we found (were certain) we were into the solid clay-rock of the district, and thought it hopeless to get indications of rock-dips or the strata overlying the rock by entering in a tunnel (drive) at the bottom of the shaft, because we were too deep, we went up the shaft and entered it as shown. The reason why the northern drive was put in in this way (direction), I may say, was that, judging from the surface-indications I saw, I thought that line (direction) likely to cut across under what appeared to be the slip on the surface of the ground. As we drove along below we pricked up 2ft. or 3ft. above the roof of the drive at intervals, but only through the rock to the strata above, at the points shown, where there seemed to be a slight dip or basin (hollow) in the surface of the rock. 353. Mr. Blair : In connection with that, gentlemen, I will give in another letter referring to the same subjects, and they can be put together. These letters all refer to the shafts. These show the strata, and are all connected with the same thing ? Witness : That shaft is not connected with No. 1 drain in any way, except that No. 1 drain goes over one of its drives. 354. Mr. Blair.} Were you on the building, or did you take cognisance of the first cracks that appeared?— The first crack that I saw was one that appeared in the concrete wall north of the central portion. Of course, that was before Mr. Brindley left the work. I think it is marked on the plan as the " old crack." 355. You see some cracks marked on the plan of the back wall. These cracks come diagonally on the back wall. This is a very old plan. Were these cracks?—At that time. 356. They have now been plastered up? —I do not remember having seen this one at the south. 357. That is not the south?—l do not remember them; I have no remembrance of having seen it. 358. But you remember the north crack ?—That is the north—that one in the next subdivision; and there is also one in the wall to the south again. 359. Mr. Gore.] I understand you have seen no crack in the wall south of this crack here ?— I have seen no crack south of the gable in the north airing-court. 360. The Chairman.'] At what level did the ground slip in on the drain No. 1 ? You stated that a portion of it came in, but you did not say at what level. Was it at the top or the bottom, or for the whole length ?—We drove through an old slip, but it was not slipping in. We met a " greasy back " that showed slipping-indications, but of course it really did not slip in and fill up the drive, or anything of that sort. But we saw from the nature of the back and strata cut that there had been movement there some day. 361. Faulty ground?— The strata changed here, and it gave the indications mentioned. 362. Did you timber it ?—We did put some slight supports here and there, but it was not timbered in a sense. We might have a stay across, but there was no timbering in the sense of the word. 363. Do we understand that there was no actual slipping in?—No, not so far as interfering with our drive is concerned. We simply took notice of it as being an indication of a slip, because I had instructions to describe the strata. 364. lam referring to drain No. 1. That was an open cut?— Yes, so far. When we came to the point you are speaking of we were driving, and beyond that point it is also a drive. 365. Where did the open cut stop ?—The open cut stopped there, and the drive began about 20ft. south-easterly from the first shaft, and this dotted line below the grade-line, between pegs 2 and 3, is purely imaginary, to show that the strata dipped that way. 366. In this longitudinal section of No. 2 drain you show solid clay-rock ?—Yes. 367. That you drove through?— Yes. 368. Can you describe the solid clay-rock?— Well, it is a clay-rock something like fireclay when dry.