Coal.

No first-class coals have yet been discovered in Otago suitable for steamships making long voyages, but very excellent brown coal exists in various neighbourhoods, and is used on the railways in large quantities. There are seventy-two coalmines at work in Otago, in twenty-two different places, furnishing very good fuel for household and domestic purposes. The output for 1896 was 237,615 tons. Beds of lignite are also found in numerous localities, chiefly round the margins of the old lake-basins, and along the courses of the older river-valleys.