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nect with Trig. Hill, there are numerous reefs that strike south-south-east and dip east-north-east at high angles, and thus should pass but a little to the eastward of the field of loose quartz on the northern slope of Kirwan’s Hill. It must, however, be noted that in the north and north-north-west higher part of the hill no notable discovery of quartz has been made (none was reported to me), and westward, along the road leading to the upper part of Boatman’s Creek and Capleston, in the side cuttings of the road rarely is a piece of quartz to be seen. All the lodes of quartz found are in gold compared with the richer of the loose blocks of the quartz-covered surface of Kirwan’s Hill, and some would seek to refer the latter to a distant source, and consider that the lodes and the field of loose quartz on the surface are only in accidental juxtaposition. After due consideration of this matter I have come to the conclusion that the loose quartz is derived from lodes in the immediate vicinity; and the evidence in support of this conclusion fully bears out the decision arrived at. Wherever matrix adheres to the quartz, this, as forming part of the foot- or hanging-walls of the original lode, is of the same character as the foot- or hanging-walls of the lodes that have been discovered. The quartz also closely agrees with that of the lodes found, and the correspondence is complete in all except the amount of gold which is contained in the loose and solid stone. All the rocks of Kirwan’s Hill and the adjacent ranges to the north and north-east are slates and sandstones belonging to the Maitai series of the New Zealand Geological Survey classification. Outside there are the Victoria Mountains to the east. The rocks are granites and crystalline schists, and, from the absence of a trace of these in Kirwan’s Hill, it is not possible that the loose quartz of the northern slope of Kirwan’s Hill could have come from these mountains, nor from an eastward direction; nor could the material of the quartz-field have come from the west without at the same time being accompanied by granite from the lower beds of the coal-measures and dark hornblendic diorite from a heavy band of that rock that outcrops on the slope from the higher part of Kirwan’s Hill to the source of Boatman’s Creek. The rich quartz that is found on the surface of the Lord Brassey Claim has therefore, in all probability, been derived from a lode not now seen at the surface, and which probably will be found running along the western part of the claim mentioned. More to the westward for a considerable distance there is little indication of the presence of quartz reefs. The whole belongs to the eastern system of quartz lodes found in connection with the Maitai slates that stretch along the east side of the Inangahua and Little Grey valleys, from the source of the Blackwater in the south to the gorge of Larry’s Creek in the north. The slate between the Waitahu and Larry’s Creek extends considerably east of the boundary hitherto assigned it, and towards the upper part of Larry’s Creek there is a large area over which prospecting might be carried on with a fair show of success.”
In several places in the foregoing report where reference is made to the loose deposit of quartz being on the northern slope of Kirwan’s Hill, the description should have been the “southern” slope. The word “eastward” is also used in one place instead of “westward”; but these are probably typographical errors, and are in any case of little consequence. The important facts in connection with the report are that the geologist had arrived at the following conclusions: (1) That the strike of the reefs found in situ in the locality was in general N.N.W. and S.S.E.; (2) that the loose stone came from the immediate vicinity; (3) that the
