Building Stones.

Building-stor.es of good quality are found in various places throughout Otage. The Port Chalmers quarries afford an inexhaustible supply of bluestone, a basaltic stone of great hardness and durability. A hard freestone of excellent quality is found at Waikawa. where there is a large hill of it close to the water's edge. Blocks of very great size can be obtained. A soft white building-stone—the well-knows page 73 Oamaru limestone—is found in large quantities along the railway-line near Oamaru, from whence a good deal is exported to other parts of New Zealand, and to the neighbouring colonies. A similar kind of stone is found at Otekaike, about two miles from the railway-station, and it may be interesting to note that during the years 1891-1891 about 3,000 tons of stone were sent from the Otekaike quarries to form the facings of the Melbourne Fish-market.