Park. — On Waitcmata Coal. 381 



at Orakei Bay and Fort Britomart, were unconformable to, 

 and had no connection with, the brown-coal measures of 

 Drury and the Lower Waikato basin. In 1885 and 1886 I 

 re-examined the same country, and also made a close and 

 detailed survey of the shores of the Hauraki Gulf from Auck- 

 land to the Maraetai Eange. The result of my observations 

 tended to show that no unconformity existed from the top of 

 the Waitematas to the base of the Papakura series ; and sub- 

 sequent surveys by Mr. McKay, F.G.S., the present Assistant 

 Geologist, have shown that the Papakura beds rest quite 

 conformably on the brown-coal measures of the Waikato and 

 Drury areas. The fact has therefore been established, by 

 actual survey and observation, that the Waitemata beds are 

 conformable to and belong to the New Zealand coal-series — 

 an opinion vv'hich has always been maintained by Sir James 

 Hector. 



It may be as well, before pursuing this subject further, to 

 shortly inquire into the physical conditions considered neces- 

 sary for the formation of coal. By the geologists of the early 

 part of this century it was believed that workable true coal could 

 only be found among a certain class of shales and sandstones 

 of the Palaeozoic or Primary period, to which the age-name 

 Carboniferous had been affixed ; and it may be as well to note 

 here that this conclusion was fully sustained by their expe- 

 rience of the coal-measures of Great Britain, continental 

 Europe, and North America, all of which were found to belong 

 to this period. But the many brilliant discoveries of the past 

 forty years have led to a remarkable evolution of thought and 

 theory in every branch of knowledge, and in none is this seen 

 more conspicuously than in the science of geology. True coals 

 of superior quality have been found in the Jurassic and Triassic 

 rocks of India and New South Wales, and in New Zealand 

 in rocks that belong to the base of the Tertiary period, but 

 which possess in some places a Secondary fades, and hence 

 have been called Cretaceo-tertiary in age. 



Thus it is seen that there is interposed between the Car- 

 boniferous coals of Britain and the Cretaceo-tertiary coals of 

 New Zealand the whole of the Secondary and a part of the 

 Primary periods, representing an immensity of time of such 

 infinite duration as to defy the comprehension of our finite 

 minds. This wide lapse of time renders it easy to explain the 

 great geological differences that exist betw^een our own and the 

 Old- World coals. Perhaps the most marked distinction lies in 

 the character of the vegetation of which each is composed, for, 

 while the European coals are mainly composed of the remains 

 of a flora belonging to the cryptogamic kingdom, truly cha- 

 racteristic of the Palaeozoic period, the New Zealand coals are 

 composed of the remains of a varied forest vegetation which 



