ancient period, up to the highly-finished Mera Pounamu which is still used as a weapon in warfare, and as a symbol of independence. Only the other day we heard how Te Kooti, in his progress through the country, thought it of importance to wrest the Meres from all chiefs through whose territory he passed, which shows the traditional value attached to them. However, the Maoris appear never to have passed beyond the so-called stone period, although they were sufficiently advanced in intelligence to appropriate at once to their own use the most improved forms of the implements of the iron age, when placed in their hands by the white man.

It is therefore since the settlement of this colony that the metallic ores, already found, have been discovered, of which we have the following:—

Gold—nearly pure, or alloyed with silver or copper.

Silver—in its native state, as well as sulphide, has been detected, but only in small quantities.

Mercury—both native, and as sulphuret or cinnabar.

Copper—in its native state, and as sulphide, silicate, oxide, carbonate.

Lead—as sulphide.

Iron—as magnetite, hematite, bi-sulphide, carbonate, and titaniferous iron.

Together with these ores, chromium, zinc, antimony, arsenic, and others in smaller quantities.

These constitute the class of mining products that are excavated from mineral lodes, occupying veins and crevices, or fissures in rocks, but we have also coal and iron ores occurring, interbedded with stratified rocks, and from our superficial deposits of sand and gravel, a rich harvest of gold dust has been obtained. If we include the last group among the mining products, we should not omit building-stones, slates, limestone, cement stone, brick clays and other materials of construction; but although these all form part of the mineral wealth of a country, the term mining is usually restricted to those mining operations that require a command of capital and skilled labour. It is no doubt true that in these colonies “diggers” of alluvial gold are termed miners, and certainly the gigantic works which they sometimes undertake, may fairly entitle them to be considered so; but still I think much inconvenience will arise if a distinction is not made between “diggings” and “mines,” the former providing employment for independent individual labour, under temporary tenure, the latter only for an organized system of labour, and the speculative application of capital, the condition requisite for which, is security of tenure.

In New Zealand, as in all other parts of the world, accident has frequently led to the first discovery of valuable minerals, and this is not to be wondered at when we consider how many acute observers are found among the first settlers in a new country, where every unfamiliar object excites wonder and curiosity.

A systematic survey, however, with the assistance of the experience embodied in the sciences of geology and mineralogy, greatly increases the chance of finding minerals, by indicating those areas which will reward a more thorough investigation, and limiting the search to profitable fields.

After the actual discovery of a mineral lode, scientific knowledge is also equally useful in order to encourage and direct the operations when the indications are favourable to success, and to repress too sanguine speculation when they are the reverse. This latter duty is a thankless task, but still not the less important and useful in assisting the true progress of a country. It is especially important in all new countries that those mines should be first worked which show the greatest chance of success, as failure is sure to create distrust on the part of capitalists, and what is still worse, to discourage further explorations.

There is one other point on which I must say a few words of caution, respecting the relation of geological science to mining. Geologists are too frequently called on to predict where mineral wealth may or may not exist, but notwithstanding the great advances which have been made in geology, we must admit that the science is still a mere digest of observed phenomena, highly qualified to enable the student to observe and record with accuracy, but not having yet attained to generalizations that warrant prediction on this subject. A positive assertion that minerals exist in “such a district,” or “in such a direction,” is very easily made and can never be positively disproved. It is therefore quite safe, and likely to catch any credit that may arise from future discoveries, but I am glad to say that it is rarely that true science ventures on such predictions. It is very different in the case of a positive assertion that a mineral does not exist in any particular locality, or, that it cannot exist under certain conditions, which is a statement that should only be ventured from actual observation, as it can, if incorrect, be at once confuted. Geological science will not, therefore, enable us to dispense with diligent and extended search.

Before proceeding with the description of the localities where mines have been opened, it is desirable that I should state briefly the leading features of the geology of New Zealand.

The whole group of islands may be looked on as a narrow mountain ridge, rising from a deep ocean bed and extending in a N. N. E. and S. S. W. direction. The form of the coast is determined by the outstanding bluffs of harder primary formations, or by massive volcanic rocks that belong to the latest Tertiary periods. These hard rocks, and especially those last mentioned, have been the means of preserving patches of upper Secondary and Tertiary formations, which occupy a larger proportional area in the North than in the South island, where the mountains are loftier and occupy a greater breadth of country.

We find, on a closer examination of the structure of the mountain system thus described that it is by no means uniform throughout, but that the rocks composing its southern portion are of much higher antiquity, and show evidence of having been subjected to chemical changes at a greater depth in the earth's crust. This difference is evidently due simply to the southern mountain mass having been elevated to a greater extent as compared with the sea level, than that in the north, and, in consequence, a much thicker layer of the superficial and unaltered rocks has been removed by atmospheric denudation. A few years since it might have seemed absurd to have attributed the present form of mountains, thousands of feet high, traversed by valleys extending even beneath the sea level, to denudation, or to have held that they are the mere core of former mountains of greater magnitude, worn down by the long continued action of ice and running water. But now such a view is in accordance with the best matured opinion.

It is therefore to deficient elevation towards its northern extremity that we must attribute the absence at the surface of many of the rock formations which are prominent in the southern portion of New Zealand, and we must conclude that in the north the same rocks exist at greater depths, and are probably still undergoing chemical changes that have ceased to operate on their southern equivalents.

The sequence of geological formations in New Zealand is abruptly broken about the close of the Lower Mesozoic period.

All the formations prior to this have been, wherever they occur, more or less cleaved and jointed, so as to be hardly distinguishable from the oldest primary slates and sandstones, combined with which they constitute the main part of the rocky framework of the islands, and form some of the highest mountain peaks.

The sub-divisions of the oldest stratified rocks have not been determined, but the fossils already obtained show that they represent groups from the Upper Silurian to the Triassic periods.

The chief mountain range, consisting of these formations, extends from the east coast in the northern part of the Otago province, in a curved line defining the western limit of the Canterbury plains, to Cook's Straits, from where it extends through to the North Island, as a series of intermittent ranges, each trending N. N. E., but as a whole having a direction to the west of north. A second range of the same formation extends from the S. E. of the Otago province, and crosses the island to Jackson's Bay, but is not continued northwards, although outliers are found at some points as far north as Cape Farewell, resting on and altered by the older rocks.

In the central portion of the Province of Otago, included between the two lines as above described, foliated schists are exposed at the surface over an area of 10,000 square miles, comprising micaceous, chlorite, and quartzose schists. This is the district of New Zealand in which the largest quantity of gold has been obtained. On the steep western slope of that portion of the Southern Alps, culminating in Mount Cook, the same schistose rocks are continued as a narrow irregular band for half the length of the island, and then again appear at intervals as far as Cape Farewell. These schistose rocks are only known on the east side of the main line of the New Zealand Alps, in two places, one in the south of the Province of Canterbury, on the Waitaki river, and the other close to Cook's Straits, between the Waian and Wakamarina rivers. In the North Island this formation has not been detected.

The remaining division of the older rocks is best developed in the S. W. corner of Otago where massive mountains of granite, gneiss, and other crystalline rocks occupy a very extensive area.

The chief characteristic of these mountains is their cubical form, due to their being intersected in all directions by profound but narrow valleys, with abrupt precipitous sides to three-fourths of the extreme height of the adjacent mountains. The valleys are partly occupied by arms of the sea, and inland lakes that resemble the Norwegian Fiords, and present most wonderful mountain scenery, that is easily accessible, and yet almost unvisited.

The same granite formation extends to Stewart's Island, and others of the outlying islands of the New Zealand group in a southerly direction. It also occurs at intervals along the west coast northwards to Cape Farewell, but it is frequently difficult to distinguish it from the granite porphyries which will be mentioned in connection with the rocks of the Igneous class. In the North Island no granite has been found corresponding to the old gneissgranite above described, but dykes of granite-porphyry occur on the Barrier Island.

Let us now turn to the formations that belong to the periods after the break which has been described as occurring in the Mesozoic period, and we find a successive repetition of terrestrial beds with seams of coal and plant remains, with clays, marls, limestone and sandstone, in the manner usual in Secondary and Tertiary formations. The earliest plant remains show many forms that are now extinct, but associated with them are a few that cannot be distinguished from those of the existing Flora. In the newer carbonaceous strata, the resemblance to the existing forms is still greater, some of the peculiar and characteristic trees of the New Zealand forests, such as the Kauri, being well preserved. There is, therefore, very little doubt that since the upper Mesozoic period, dry land has existed continuously, and that some part or other of the New Zealand ridge has always been above water. The succession of marine fossils divides these formations into well marked groups characterised by changes in the species of marine animals on the coast, and showing a gradual

passage from forms allied to the South American types, to those of the Australian seas.

The occurrence of Secondary Cephalopods and Saurian reptiles in the lower groups renders it probable that the strata range from Jurassic formations upwards. But this is a subject pertaining purely to geology.

I will next proceed to describe briefly the Igneous rocks found in these islands, some of which have a more direct relation to the presence or absence of minerals than any of the foregoing.

Among the crystalline rocks we find Syenites, and many varieties of Hornblende and other basic rocks, but they are chiefly to be considered as varieties of metamorphic rocks. In the great Schistose area of Otago, there is a very marked absence of all Igneous rocks, except towards the eastern border, where Dolerites, belonging to the Miocene period, have escaped through the Schists at a few points, but without influencing their mineralogical character.

It is not till the period of the lower Mesozoic rocks, previous to the break in the geological sequence which I have described, that any contemporaneous Igneous formations have been detected. These consist of Diorites, Diabase, and Porphyries, associated with mechanically-formed strata of the same materials (Diorite sandstones and Breccias), containing fossils that indicate the period to which they belong. This formation is associated with a variety of altered rocks, of which Serpentine is the most prominent, and on the whole closely resembles in character the Diorite formation of South America, as described by Darwin and David Forbes. These Diorite rocks are found along a line that extends almost continuously through the South Island, chiefly along the western slope of the mountain axis, but they also appear in one or two localities on the eastern side of the range, though there presenting somewhat different characters. As the best known example of this formation I may instance the Dun Mountain, and mineral belt of Nelson.

What I take to be the same formation occurs in the North Island among the older rocks of the Colville peninsula, Barrier Island, and other mining districts. The relative date of the different Igneous rocks, subsequent to the foregoing, can generally be determined with considerably certainty. They present great variety, and belong chiefly to the upper Tertiary period, but it will be found, as our observations are extended, that volcanic outbursts were taking place in the New Zealand area, at almost every period subsequent to the Mesozoic Diorite series. The influence of the more modern volcanic rocks in producing mineral lodes and veins has been very slight, the only well-established cases being when they have been erupted through the Igneous rocks of the Diorite group, as at Coromandel and the Thames.

Keeping clearly before us these leading characteristics of the geological structure of New Zealand, it is highly interesting to compare them with the structure of the nearest large mass of land in Australia.

Extending along the eastern border of the Australian continent, we have within a short distance of the coast the Australian Cordillera, a main range of Primary rocks, flanked on the east side by a shelf-like remnant of Secondary strata, comprising the various coal fields of New South Wales, while on the west side is an expanse of low-lying country, where only very modern Tertiary formations are found. Towards the South end of the range in Gippsland, we have masses of granite lying to the west of an area of Mica slate and other metamorphic rocks. The marked resemblance of the natural features of this district to the Otago province of New Zealand has been frequently mentioned by diggers, while the analogy of geological structure in the two districts has been the subject of correspondence between Mr. Selwyn, the late Government geologist of Victoria, and myself. Now I find that by covering the Australian Cordillera in a map of Australia, with a tracing of

New Zealand, drawn to the same scale, placing the Otago Mica-schist area directly over that of Gippsland, and making the meridians parallel, that there is a wonderful coincidence between the relative position of the goldfields in the two countries, the chemical character of the gold, and the nature of the associated rocks and minerals.

New Zealand, thus compared, equals in length from Gippsland in Victoria, to Rockhampton in the north of Queensland, a range of territory which is important to the question of relative mineral wealth, when we also observe that New Zealand covers in width the mineral bearing ridge or Cordillera of Eastern Australia, having the ocean on the west instead of the Murray plains, and on the east only small areas of the carboniferous rocks.

By referring to the accompanying map (Plate 21), in which the relative extent and position of the two countries is shown at a glance, it will be found that the chief Victorian diggings, such as Ballarat, Castlemaine, and Bendigo, lie altogether west of the New Zealand boundary, and this is quite in accordance with the absence of any geological formation in New Zealand similar to the highly-cleaved Silurian strata of those gold fields. Then selecting for comparison the chief diggings in both countries, we find that Beechworth, Snowy Creek, and Omeo, correspond exactly in area and position with the richest diggings of Otago. Ophir exactly covers the position of the chief Hokitika diggings; while the Bathurst district has its analogue towards the south of the Teramakau. Bingera lies a little to the north of the Nelson gold fields, and the Rocky River diggings cover those of the Wakamarina. Continuing northwards there is a long gap without auriferous localities in both countries, till we are struck by finding that Gympie creek, in Queensland, exactly agrees with the Thames diggings. With more perfect maps of Australia than those at my command, and especially one showing the geological formations, it might be interesting to follow the analogy into its minute details, and so far as I am able to judge from the information I possess, it would be fully borne out.

From the description of the New South Wales gold fields, by the Rev. W. B. Clark, I gather that in the southern portion of the Cordillera, the gold, which is of good quality—containing less than 6 per cent. of silver—is chiefly found in that part of the country composed of Hornblendic granite and Mica schist; and this, as before stated, corresponds with the general character of the Otago country.

In what he terms the western district, which on our map corresponds with the Nelson district in New Zealand, he describes it as characterised by irregular areas of Hornblende granite, with locally transmuted members of the upper Palæozoic group, and Serpentine charged with Chromic iron, where the rocks have been altered by dykes of Diorite. This description is quite applicable to the Nelson district, and, moreover, in both districts the gold is found to be alloyed with from 10 to 14 per cent. of silver. At Gympie creek, in Queensland, we learn from reports by the Government geologists, that the gold is obtained from reefs traversing decomposed Diorite rocks, associated with masses of tufaceous Breccia and Conglomerate. Areas of soft felspathic schist also occur, the whole series of formations being intersected by dykes of Diorite. From a collection of the rocks of this district, lately sent to the Museum by Mr. T. Hacket, I select many that cannot be distinguished from Thames specimens: the quality of the gold is also identical, and highly characteristic, as it contains over 35 per cent. of silver, and is found along with small quantities of lead, arsenic, antimony, copper, and other metals. Among the rock specimens it is interesting to find some taken from mines at Gympie Creek, that from their appearance at a first glance, and also from their chemical composition, would be classed as Diorites, yet distinctly containing fossils of the same species that characterise our upper Palæozoic and Triassic rocks.