Thomson. — -Geology of Middle Wnipara and Weka Pass Districf . 405 



Park's revision of the marine Tertiaries (1905) helped to emphasize the 

 purely Tertiary nature of the supposed Cretaceo-Tertiary rocks of South 

 Canterbury and Otago. The recognition by' Uttley and Thomson (1914) 

 of the infra-position of the Waihao greensands in respect to the Ototara 

 limestone, together by the demonstration by Woods (1917) of the purely 

 Cretaceous nature, of the beds below the Amuri limestone in North 

 Canterbury, removed the weaknesses of Button's position. His criticism thus 

 reinforced is absolutely destructive of the correlations assumed by Hector. 



The Cretaceo-Tertiary theory thus failed both in its classification of 

 the rocks of the northern province (Rakaia River to Kaikoura Peninsula), 

 and in its correlation of the rocks of the southern province (Kakanui River 

 to Rakaia River). By falsely correlating Piripauan with Waiarekan rocks 

 it failed to recognize the diversity between these two provinces. It 

 failed also, owing to false correlation of the Piripauan and Clarentian rocks, 

 to recognize the diversity between the northern of these two provinces 

 and that extending from the Hapuku River to Cape Campbell. The 

 Cretaceo-Tertiary theory of Hector must be absolutely discarded. Until 

 we have new accormts of all Notocene localities, however, it will be necessary 

 for the student to have a clear understanding of Hector's classification 

 and its fallacies, because for many localities McKay's accounts of the 

 stratigraphy are stiU the only or the best accounts available, and they are 

 all couched in terms of this classification. 



Hutton's Classification and its Successors. 



Button's final classification (1900) of the younger rocks of New Zealand 

 differed little from that he proposed in 1872, and was as follows : — 



Cainozoic system — 



Wanganui series . . . . . . Newer Pliocene. 



Older Pliocene. 

 Miocene. 

 Oligocene . 

 Upper Cretaceous. 



Glacier epoch 

 Pareora series 

 Oamaru series 

 Waipara system 



His views of the diastrophic history during these periods are contained 

 in the following extracts : " About the middle of the Jurassic period 

 folding of the rocks [of the Hokonui system] occurred along the same 

 north-east and south-west axis ; the Alps were formed, and the present 

 land of New Zealand may be said to have been born, for since then it has 

 never been submerged. ... In the Upper Cretaceous the land sub- 

 sided, and New Zealand was reduced to comparatively small limits. . . . 

 A little before the commencement of the Tertiary era the rocks were folded 

 once more, the land rose again. . . . This was the last folding of rocks 

 in New Zealand on an, extensive scale, for all the younger rocks usually 

 lie in the same position in which they were originally deposited, and circle 

 round the bases of the hills formed by older rocks. Not only was the last 

 touch given in the Eocene period to the internal structure of the mountains, 

 but the chief valleys were also deeply scoured out, so that when the land 

 sank again in the Oligocene period these valleys were filled up with marine 

 limestones and other rocks. The Oligocene and Miocene were periods of 

 depression separated by a slight upheaval which lasted only for a short 

 time. ... In the older Pliocene came the last great upheaval. All 

 the islands were joined together, and the land stretched away to the east 

 and south. ... On the mountains of the South Island large glaciers 

 were formed, and the torrential rivers rmining from them tore into discon- 

 nected fragments the Miocene marine rocks which obstructed their vallevs. 



