498 Proceedings. 



render their city quite safe ; but Mr. McKay had shown that Wellington 

 was by no means so far from the fissure, but was, on the contrarj', very 

 much on the line of it. His only object had been to call attention to the 

 fact that tlie buildings in Wellington were not put up with a view to 

 resisting earthquakes. Some people might say that it was not necessary 

 to keep this end in view, and if they thought so they were entitled to 

 their opinions. He was glad to find that no serious objection had been 

 taken to the views he had offered. Every one present seemed to agree 

 that our buildings were not erected in such a manner as to provide 

 against severe shakes ; therefore, if those shakes came, the people of 

 Wellington would only have themselves to thank. 



2. " On the Extent and Duration of Workable Coal in 

 New Zealand," by James Park, F.G.S. {Transactions, p. 325.) 



Mr. Higginson asked on what data Mr. Park's estimate of the 

 amount of coal in each field was founded, and whether he had taken into 

 account the depth to which the coal might be worked, and the probability 

 of there being two or more seams of coal in the same field. He pointed 

 out that a consideration of these facts would greatly affect the estimated 

 amount. 



Mr. Park, in reply, said that his estimate was based upon the sur- 

 veys made by the different geological workers who had examined and 

 reported on the various coalfields, which only included such areas as 

 were known to contain coal. 



Mr. McKay did not think that Mr. Higginson's most important ques- 

 tion had been answered — namely, as to the number of seams that might 

 be present in particular coalfields. 



Mr. Park further said that he had stated in his paper that there was 

 usually but one seam near the base of the series ; and that otherwise his 

 estimate of the amount of coal had been based on what might be worked 

 level-free. 



Sixth Meeting : 3rd October, 1888. 



W. M. Maskell, F.E.M.S., President, in the chair. 



Neiv Members. — Kobert Donaldson, C. Y. O'Connor, Per- 

 ceval Earle, Eobert Caldwell. 



Papers. — 1. " On the Fallacy of the Electro-capillary 

 Theory," by W. Skey. {Transactions, p. 363.) 



2. " Further Notes on New Zealand Desmidiece, with De- 

 scrij)tions of New Species," by W. M. Maskell, F.K.M.S. 

 {Transactions, p. 3.) 



3. "On the Occurrence of Native Lead at Collingwood, 

 and its Association with Gold," by W. Skey. {Transactions, 

 p. 367.) 



4. "On Earthquakes and Architecture," by T. Turnbull, 

 F.R.I.B.A., M.I.G.A., and A.C.A. 



Abstract. 



In opening, Mr. Turnbull explained that as Mr. Maskell had, in his 

 paper on the sanie subject read at a previous meeting, with only one 

 exception, criticized buildings of which he had been the architect, he felt 



