Since commencing this paper the writer has found that the classification originally adopted would he somewhat inconvenient, and begs permission therefore to change the title of Part II, from "Miscellaneous Lode-mining" to that given above, which is subdivided as follows:—

There are probably few countries of equal area which contain so great a variety of ores as New Zealand, but at the same time it cannot be said that the natural mineral resources of the colony have been at all worthily developed. One reason for this is the fascination exercised by gold on the mind of the miner. Familiar to him from his earliest infancy, the alpha and omega of all that is desired, he naturally inclines to search for it rather than for any of those less known and less attractive minerals containing valuable metals often in a very homely guise. Then the exceedingly rough nature of the country, already described in the first portion of this paper, has rendered the transport of bulky ores page 40 difficult and indeed often impossible. Reduction works are few and far between, and the expense attendant on treating complex minerals in bulk has usually been very great.