Park. — Tlie Lower Mesozoic Bocks of New Zealand. 403 



porary formations, and must therefore be grouped together 

 under one name, which for reasons already specified must 

 preferably be the place-name Mataura. 



It is probable that all the rocks hitherto referred to the 

 Carboniferous bj^ the Geological Survey are Jurassic or Juro- 

 triassic, with perhaps the exception of the gold-bearing rocks 

 at Eeefton, concerning the age of which no definite informa- 

 tion is available, and certain aphanitic sandstones, breccias, 

 :and slates in the mountains west and north of Lake Wakatipu. 



The Jurassic Mataura series, now comprising the Maitai 

 series, has a wide distribution in both Islands, and is in most 

 places so intimately associated with the Trias in the formation 

 of the great tectonic features of our mountain-chains that the 

 limits of the Trias may broadly be said to define the distrilju- 

 tion of the Jurassic. 



In Southland the Mataura series occupies a wide tract 

 •of country, which extends south of a line drawn from the 

 Mataura Falls to the south head of Roaring Bay, near Nug- 

 get Point. Again, passing northward into Canterbury, the 

 enormous thickness and disposition of the Jurassic rocks in 

 the upper Rangitata seems to justify the conclusion of Von 

 Haast, expressed in 1873, that the great mass of the Canter- 

 bury Alps, extending from Mount Cook to the sources of the 

 Eakaia, was composed of rocks of Jurassic age. 



In some parts of Nelson, and more particularly in the 

 vicinity of Dun Mountain range, the limits of the Jurassic 

 and Triassic rocks are fairly well defined ; but elsewhere in 

 Nelson, and in the North Island generally, it is impossible 

 with our present information to define tlie respective limits of 

 the two systems, excepting in a few isolated patches, as at 

 Kawhia, Raglan, and Waikato Heads. 



The Mataura series is the important member of the great 

 Hokonui system of Juro-permian age. 



General Distribution of Hokonui System. 



This vast assemblage of sedimentary strata comprises a 

 stratigraphical system ranging in time from Permian to 

 Jurassic in one unbroken succession. It is the principal 

 mountain-builder in New Zealand, and in its vastness, in the 

 character of its sediments, age, and tectonic importance, bears 

 a marked resemblance to the celebrated Gondwana system in 

 India. Its nearest equivalent is the great Juro-permian 

 svstem of New Guinea. 



In the North Island of New Zealand it forms the Tararua, 

 Rimutaka, Ruahine, and Kaimanawa Mountains, extending 

 in one almost unbroken chain from East Cape to Cook Strait. 

 Outlying patches occur at Coromandel, Tuhua, Kawhia, 

 Waikato Heads, and north of Auckland. 



