Building Stones of Canterbury.

The building stones of Canterbury are principally derived from two very distinct sources, of which the first, furnishing freestones of excellent quality and generally of considerable hardness, is of volcanic origin.

These are mostly obtained from Banks Peninsula, and are probably of middle tertiary age. The rest of the building stones, mostly of a calcareous nature, are derived from the upper portion of two well defined sedimentary deposits, named the Waipara and Oamaru formations, the first being of cretaceo-tertiary, and the latter of upper eocene or lower miocene age. The hard building stones of volcanic origin quarried in Banks Peninsula are derived either from basaltic lava streams, in which case they are generally used for rubble and for dressed ashlar work, or they are taken from dykes generally of a trachytic character. These dyke rocks, for every kind of architectural work, are very useful, and form in many instances beautiful building stones of rich colour and fine texture.

The calcareous sandstones usually called limestones are of light colours, from brownish-grey to a creamy white, and of a varying degree of hardness, but they can all be cut with a saw when taken from a quarry. Afterwards they gradually become much harder when being exposed to the air, an excellent quality for a building stone of that class. An almost unlimited supply of this building material can be obtained.

These are the principal carved panels of the famous house "Matatua," and are so placed as to form the lining of the machinery annexe of the New Zealand Court.

The house itself was originally built at the suggestion of Hohaia Matatehokia, chief of the Ngatipukeho tribe, for the purpose of representing therein all their ancestors. It was completed in 1874, and in March, 1875, was formally opened by the late Sir Donald M' Lean with great demonstrations, in the presence of many hundreds of native and European visitors. The image on each post represents the ancestor of some tribe or sub-tribe.

This places it in the same class as the oolites of England and the Caen stone of France.

The Oamaru stone has a remarkable uniformity of colour and texture, and can be obtained in large blocks. Like all stones of this kind it is quite soft when quarried, but hardens rapidly on exposure to a dry atmosphere. This enables it to be worked into the most elaborate ornamentation at little cost.

The stone is rather porous for use in a damp situation, but it answers well in ordinary walls and columns in a moderately dry climate, and it is unexcelled for internal decorations.