said not 'sail as before mentioned the said Richard Bowden Martin and Alexander Carrick their executors and administrators and the owners of the said steamship shall pay to the Superintendent of the said province thirty shillings for every hour such Steamer shall be behind the time of sailing And in consideration of the service so to be performed in pursuance of these presents the said John Hyde Harris for himself and the Superintendent of the said province and the said Superintendent's successors in office Doth and Do hereby covenant and agree that he and they shall and will pay to the said Richard Bowden Martin and Alexander Carrick their executors and administrators respectively for and on behalf of the owners of the said steamship the said monthly subsidy of Six hundred pounds upon the performance of each voyage to Melbourne respectively Provided that in case from any cause the said steamship or other steamship as aforesaid should not proceed upon such voyage no subsidy shall be due or payable and that should the said steamship sail from the Port of Otago with the said Mail and an accident afterwards occur on the voyage whereby the said steamship is unable to perform the said service the said first parties hereto will nevertheless be entitled to the said subsidy Provided such accident occasioning non-performance of the service be not attributable to the culpable neglect or the acts of the owners or their servants in carrying out necessary repairs to the Vessel or otherwise In witness whereof the said parties hereto have hereunto subscribed their names.

R. B. MARTIN
A. CARRICK.

Signed by the above named Richard Bowden Martin and Alexander Carrick in the presence of

A. FINDLATER
Clerk to Provincial Solicitor
Dunedin.

GOLD FIELD.

NOTES by Dr. Hector relative to the Geology of the Manuherikia Valley.

Dunedin, August 27, 1862.

To His Honor the Deputy-Superintendent.

Sir,—I have the honor to submit for your information a few notes relative to the Geology of the Manuherikia Valley, as I am aware that any information concerning that district, however imperfect, has a special interest and value at the present time. I visited it for a few days in May last, in the course of a rapid tour which I have now made through most of the eastern portion of the Province, and of which a short report, with illustrative sections, is in preparation.

The route by which I reached the district in question, was the ordinary dray track by Shag Valley and the Maniototo or Upper Taieri Plains. The furthest point I reached was a little above the junction of the Manuherikia River with the Molyneux, so that, excepting from a distance, I have not seen even that portion of the newly reported auriferous country which lies on this side of the Dunstan Range. The general position of the very appropriately termed “Dunstan Diggings,” so far as yet known, will be along the course of the Molyneux River, where it passes the south end of the Dunstan Range by a rugged gorge, to escape from the Valley of the Lindis into that of the Manuherikia, for even with a very partial knowledge of the country, a glance at the map shews that, in a certain sense, the Molyneux River cannot be said to have a proper valley of its own, but rather to follow a rent or fissure across a succession of great valleys which lie nearly at right angles to its main course, and occupied by comparatively insignificant streams. The principal object I have in this communication is to point out this anomaly and to shew reasons why the occurrence of gold detritus should not be too rigidly associated with the action of the river, which at first appears the most natural view of its distribution.

To understand the geology of the lower portion of the Manuherikia Valley, it must be considered in connection with a much larger area of which it forms a natural division.

By referring to any of the excellent maps of the country which have been issued by the Survey Department, it will be observed that westward from the head of Shag Valley the country is traversed by a succession of nearly parallel ridges which coalesce at their southern extremities to form the broad, massive, and elevated region of the Lammermuir Mountains, but to the north they gradually die out as they approach the Kakanui Mountains which rise abruptly in a line nearly at right angles to them. These ridges, which are composed of highly altered sedimentary rocks, impregnated with quartz, along with the Kakanui Mountains, which are composed in part of the same altered schists, but overlaid by crystalline limestones and newer schists, thus enclose an extensive depression, having a very irregular boundary, embracing the Upper Taieri Plains, Ida'burn Valley, and the Manuherikia Valley. How far this depression may extend to the north-west I cannot at present say, but if not cut off by a mountain ridge extending between Mount St.