Earthy Limestone.

Freestone.—A fine limestone of a brown tint occurs near Dunedin, at Boat Harbour; it works freely, seems durable, and is said to exist in large quantities, and to be procurable in moderately-sized blocks; it has the disadvantage of not being in an easily accessible situation.

A hard, shelly, and white limestone, belonging to a younger formation than the Oamaru stone, occurs at Kakanui, and is used in some structures in that locality; it is of a uniform colour and consistency, is easily worked, and procurable in large blocks. The supply is unlimited.

Southland possesses a fair stone of this kind.

A valuable limestone occurs on the Otago Peninsula, near Port Chalmers, in two beds, one dark-coloured and the other yellow; the last contains a rather large amount of fine-grained sand, yellow and black. They burn to pretty good quicklime.

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A good stone for lime occurs on Scinde Island, Napier; it is fossiliferous, and of Upper Tertiary age.

At Oamaru a compact variety of limestone is largely burnt for lime, but it is found in dislocated and concretionary masses intermixed with quantities of worthless rock, which gradually increases the expense of extraction. It is fossiliferous.

A hard very compact grey-coloured stone of considerable purity occurs near the Moke Creek copper lodes, and would afford the flux required for reducing the ore. It is fossiliferous, and of Lower Tertiary date.