400 Transactions. 



different members of the series, causing unconformities of regional classi- 

 ficatory value. They fail, however, to recognize the grander fact that all 

 the younger rocks were deposited in a period of relative crustal inactivity 

 between the epochs of major diastrophism, and on this account should be 

 grouped into one grand system. This is recognized in the classifications 

 of Marshall and Thomson. Each of the above types of classification will 

 now be examined in detail with regard to its applicability to the palaeonto- 

 logical and stratigraphical facts brought out in this paper, and in relation 

 to the explanation it offers for the diversities exhibited in the three main 

 diastrophic provinces of the east coast of the South Island. 



The Cretaceo-Teetiary Formation of Hector. 



It has been stated by Park that the theory of a conformable succession 

 bridging the gap between the Cretaceous and Tertiary in New Zealand 

 was first proposed by Hutton, but later abandoned by him, and was after- 

 wards taken up by Hector. I have failed to discover the evidence for this 

 statement in any of the published writings of Hutton, though Hector (1892) 

 states that when he used the term " Cretaceo-Tertiary " in 1877 it was a 

 revival of a term which had been in abeyance for some years. Hector's 

 adoption of the formation in 1877 appears to be a direct outcome of the 

 views he always held as to the Mesozoic age of all the coalfields in New 

 Zealand. Thus when Provincial Geologist of Otago he classed the marine 

 rocks of Oamaru, Hampden, Caversham, &c., under a "Tertiary Oamaru 

 series, but the coal-measures of Kaitangata, Clutha, Shag Point, &c., under 

 a Carbonaceous series, and considered it as possibly upper Mesozoic. 



In 1870, after he had visited the Waipara district, the North Canterbury 

 rocks now included in the Notocene were grouped by Hector in the Cata- 

 logue of the Colonial Museum as follows : — 



/ B. Upper or Struthiolaria series . . . . Motunau, Lower Gorge of the 



Waipara River. 



C. Middle or Cue itZZaea series ., ... Waikari, Lyngdon, Hurunui 

 Tertiary J^ ^ Mound, Upper Trelissick. 



D. Older or Ototara series . . . . Deans, Weka Pass, Curiosity 



Shop, Selwyn River, Lower 

 \ • Trelissick. 



i E. L(da marls or Aotea series . . . . > Conway River, AVaiau-ua. 



Mesozoic \ F. Chalk and chalk marls . . . . (Amuri Bluff). 



(G. Ferruginous sandstones or Waipara series Boby's Creek, Culverden. 



In this grouping of the LeHa marls (which subsequently were termed the 

 " grey marls ") with the Chalk or Amuri limestone and the Waipara series in 

 the Secondary as opposed to the Mount Brown beds of the Deans in the 

 Older Tertiary, the Cretaceo-Tertiary formation was clearly foreshadowed. 

 In 1877 Hutton included the " grey marls " in his Oamaru system, and the 

 Amuri limestone and underlying beds in his Waipara system. Hector 

 (1877a), in commenting on Hutton 's paper, rejected Hutton 's classification, 

 and in a table of beds of Amuri Bluff included the " grey marls " and fucoidal 

 limestone (Weka Pass stone) with the Amuri limestone in a Chalk group, 

 recognizing also two lower groups, which he named the Greensand group 

 and the Amuri group. In the following volume of Reports of Geological 

 Explorations (1877b) he used the name of Cretaceo-Tertiary formation 

 for a part of the, sequence in the Kaipara district, and in the following 

 volume again (1877c) it appeared for the first time in a general table of 

 New Zealand formations, though not in its final form. The following table 

 shows the various names applied to the divisions or series of the formation. 



