Fauk.— Age and Relations of Neiu Zealand Coalfields. 417 



McKay, pass downwards into greysands and quartz grits and 

 conglomerates, which in turn rest on the basement rocks.* 



The sandy Kekenodon beds and underlying green sands, 

 itc, therefore foi'm the base of the Tertiary beds in the old 

 Waitaki Fiord, and, pToceeding westward, they pass under a 

 yellowish-brown limestone, which Mr. McKay calls the Ote- 

 kaike limestone. 



I think that there can be no doubt that this limestone is 

 the horizontal equivalent of the Ngapara (Oamaru) limestone. 

 But, without laying any stress upon the exact correlation of 

 the limestones, we have in the Wharekuri Basin a section of 

 the Oamaru series exactly parallel with that at Waihao Kiver ; 

 and there is little to wonder at in this parallelism if these beds, 

 as seems to me likely, were deposited on the floor of the same 

 continuous sea. 



The position of the sandy beds at Wharekuri, containing, 

 as we find, most, if not all, of the forms hitherto supposed to 

 be typical of the Pareora series, at once raises a question as 

 to the relations of the Awamoa and other supposed Pareoras 

 in North Otago to the Oamaru stone. But, quite apart from 

 the position of the Pareora beds in South Canterbury and 

 North Otago, I am agreed with Mr. McKay that the coal at 

 Waihao, Waitaki, and west of Oamaru occurs below the 

 Oamaru stone. 



In 1866 Sir James Hector distinguished two coal-bearing 

 formations on the west coast of the South Island, an upper 

 or pitch-coal series, and a lower or bituminous-coal series. 

 This subdivision has been pretty generally acknowledged by 

 every one from that time up to the present date, but diverse 

 opinions have been expressed as to the relations of the two 

 series. 



The coalfields of New Zealand, in my opinion, may be 

 grouped according to their age into two divisions, as follows : — 



Oamaru series — 



(a.) Kawakawa, Bay of Islands. 



(b.) Hikurangi, Whangarei. 



(c.) Ngunguru, north of Whangarei. 



[d.) Taupiri and Huntly, Lower Waikato. 



(e.) Waipa-Hikurangi, Upper Waikato. 



(/.) King-country and Upper Wanganui. 



(g.) Mokau, Upper and Lower. 



(h.) West Wanganui, Collingwood. 



{i.) Inangahua, Bulier County. 



(j.) Kakahu.. South Canterbury. 



{k.) Waihao, South (Canterbury. 



(/.) Waitaki, North Otago. 



*Rep.?. Geol. Expl., 1881, p. 67. 

 27— Trans. 



