508 Proceedings. 



so destructive in Nelson and in most parts of the North Island except 

 the Wellington District. 



4. " Notes on Te Karamea Bluff," by Captain G. Mair. 



Abstract. 



Te Karamea Bluff is about a mile and a half south of Motuokura or 

 Bare Island, and south of Cape Kidnappers some ten miles. It projects 

 into the sea about 120 yards, and is joined to the mainland by a razor- 

 back ridge of white marl, some 20ft. or 30ft. high and half the thickness. 

 The highest part of the bluff is close on 100ft. It is formed of crumbling 

 stone of every conceivable colour, red and chrome predominating. The 

 -whole mass appears to be resting on and slipping to seaward from a 

 layer of marl. No other similar formation exists in the district, except 

 in a small valley running parallel to the coast about a quarter of a mile 

 west of the bluff, where there is a mound of the same material, about the 

 size of a large haystack, cropping out on the hill-side. This place was 

 formerly a refuge for the native tribes during war-time, as it is almost 

 inaccessible. About 1828-30 a war-party of Ngatihoatua, from the 

 Thames, under Takurua, who was afterwards killed at Kaipaki by Te 

 Waharoa, laid siege to Te Karamea. The besieged were unable to lay in 

 a store of food and water, and sustained themselves for a considerable 

 time by occasionally lowering the most venturesome of their number 

 into the sea at the outer end, who would collect limpets and seaweed 

 from the rocks, and be drawn up the cliffs by ropes. Eventually they 

 became so emaciated from want of food that the pa was taken, and a 

 great massacre took place. The spot is now very sacred in the estimation 

 of the natives living in the district. They had a whaling- station near by 

 a few years ago, and a good boat-landing exists on the north or east side, 

 according to the wind. 



jNIr. ]\IcKay said he was pleased that the paper had beeii read, more 

 especially as it was evident the writer was unaware that a discussion on 

 the true position of the red rocks had taken place ; and yet the paper 

 and sketch made it quite clear that these overlie the marl and greensand- 

 beds of the isthmus and mainland. The evidence given in the paper was 

 thus in agreement with what he himself reported in 1875, and again in 

 188G, and^in no sense bore out the contention put forward by Professor 

 Hutton that the rocks of Red Island— Te Karamea Bluff— are of palaeo- 

 zoic age, and are referable to the Rimutaka series. 



5. " Eemarks on Earthquakes in the x\muri District, South 

 Island," by Alexander McKay, F.G.S. 



Abstbact. 



The author commenced by stating that, for twelve months previous to 

 the end of August last, booming noises, proceeding from the ground, had 

 been heard in the district surrounding the Hanmer Plains, ana that 

 towards the end of that month earthquakes began to be experienced; 

 these premonitions were followed by the great shock of the 1st September, 

 which did nearly all the damage that happened to buildings, and opened 

 most of the fissures that are yet to be seen. This was followed by the 

 shock of the 28th September, and, after a like period, Dy that of the 23rd 

 October, and those of the 2Gth and 28th of the same month ; there being 

 iust about a lunar month between the first and second and the second 

 and last series of shocks. Mr. McKay then described the effects the 

 earthquakes had produced, and gave a detailed account descriptive of the 

 fissures opened at many places along the Waiau-ua and Hope Valleys, more 

 especially those seen near the mouth of Gorge Creek near Hopefield, at 

 Hopefield, and at and near Glvnn Wye. The present ruined condition of the 

 building's at Glynn Wye was described, and the manner in which the fences 



