320 Transactions. — Geology. 



cient evidence to prove the existence of struthious birds in this 

 country anterior to the hmit fixed by the late Sir Juhus von 

 Haast, but it does not follow that yet older remains or traces of 

 the moa may not be found. The discovery has placed the geo- 

 logical record of the life-history of the moa one step farther 

 back. It has extended the period of its existence in the 

 country, and it has opened out the fact that in the matter of 

 climate and productions the country has changed but little. 

 Most of the varieties of leaves found with the feathers belong 

 to species still common in the North Island. Some, however, 

 are new, but further treatment of the subject must be deferred 

 until a detailed description of the fossil flora and fauna can be 

 obtained from those more capable than myself of expressing a 

 judgment on these matters. 



Art. XXXVI. — The Oil Prospects of Poverty Bay and 



District. 



By H. Hill. 



[Read before the Hawkers Bay Philosophical Institute, 12th Nov., 1888.] 



Plate XXIV. 



During the present year a good deal of interest has been 

 aroused throughout New Zealand and the neighbouring 

 colonies by the reported " striking of oil " at one of the many 

 springs which are to be found along the east coast of this 

 island. It is now twenty-three years since the first reported 

 discovery of oil in the Poverty Bay district was made known 

 in Napier. Ten years ago I visited the site of an abandoned 

 well in the vicinity of Poverty Bay, where it had been antici- 

 pated that oil would flow like water; but at that time few 

 traces remained of what had once been a scene of activity and 

 hope. Since the date of my visit a number of attempts have 

 been made to find a paj'able field in several places, but with- 

 out success until early in the present year, when news reached 

 Gisborne that oil had been struck in a new sinking, and that 

 the engine-house, derrick, and adjoining buildings had been 

 destroyed by an explosion of gas and oil from the new well. 



Being in the Poverty Bay district shortly after the reported 

 " striking of oil," I took the opportunity to visit the site of 

 the South Pacific Company's well, so that I might judge for 

 myself whetlier the oil prospects are equal to what had been 

 reported in the papers. The locality of the South Pacific 

 Company's well, and of another well in course of sinking, and 

 known as the Minerva Company's well, is about twenty-eight 



