27

THE GEOLOGY OF AUCKLAND 23

coal, and can assure the people of Auckland, that the Brown
Coal of this country is quite as good as that which is used in
Germany for the purposes I have just mentioned. I would strongly
recommend that any Company which may be formed for the
purpose of working the coal should also at the same time
establish Potteries for the manufacture of earthenware.
Remarkably suitable Clays of every necessary varieties have been
shown to exist in the immediate neighbourhood of the coal-fields,
by the borings which have been made by the Provincial
Government at my request.* By the establishment of such
works, the value of the coal would be made apparent to every-
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* The following are the results of two borings made in the flats between
Drury Hotel and the Drury Ranges, under the directions of Mr. Ninnis,
to him I am indebted for the tables subjoined:-
BORING No. I.
Feet. Inch.
1) 2. 0 Dark soil.
2) 9. 6 Plastic clay, yellow and blue.
3) 1. 6 Gravel and pebbles.
4) 1. 0 Yellow clay.
5) 3. 0 Grey clay.
6) 6. 0 Blue clay.
7) 11. 0 Arenaceous clay.
8) 15. 0 Grey clay.
9) 2. 0 Greenish clay.
10) 1. 0 Dark grey clay.
11) 5. 0 Bluish grey clay.
12) 2. 0 Sandy clay.
13) 5. 2 Volcanic ashes and gravel.
14) 5. 6 Hard basaltic rock.
________
69. 8
BORING No. II.
1) 1. 0 Dark soil.
2) 7. 0 Yellow clay.
3) 6. 6 White clay.
4) 7. 0 Yellow and red clay.
5) 1. 4 Brown clay.
6) 8. 0 Yellow clay.
7) 5. 0 Brown.
8) 4. 0 Reddish.
9) 10. 0 Brown.
10) 4. 6 Gravel and Volcanic ashes.
11) 9. 6 Hard basaltic rockss.
________
63. 10
Of these I would draw attention to No. I., 2, for common pottery; No.
I., 6 and 8, for fine stoneware; No. I., 7, for firebricks, The various
coloured clays, No. II., 2 to 9, will be applicable to every kind of pottery.
No. II., 8 may be used as a colour or pigment in the same way as ochre
and umber are generally used.