400 Transactions. — Geology. 



So far as I can discover, there is no authentic reeoi'd of 

 Halohia lovimcli from the Lower Trias of Europe, and, if we 

 assume that a homotaxial parallelism existed between the 

 Trias of the Pacific and Europe, ic is evident that the Halohia 

 beds of New Zealand must be referred to the lower part of the 

 Middle Trias. 



I have shown in a paper " On the Jurassic Age of the 

 Maitai Series" that the Clavigera (Athyris) beds in Well's 

 Creek, referred in 1879 by Mr. McKay to the Permian, were 

 the closing beds of the Trias, and occupied the same position 

 as the Clavigera beds at Shaw's Bay and Otapiri. 



The theory of inversion of the whole Triassic system in 

 Nelson, by means of which Mr. McKay sought to establish 

 the inferior position of the Maitai series, brought many diffi- 

 culties with it, and rendered it impossible to correlate the 

 Nelson marine horizons with the succession so clearly esta- 

 blished in Southland and southern Otago. 



The many attempts to reconcile the inverted succession in 

 Nelson with the normal succession elsewhere were unsatis- 

 factory even to the Geological Survey, judging from the fre- 

 quent rearrangement of the groups subsequent to 1878 ; and, 

 naturally, the blending of the two resulted only in confusion. 



The persistence of Clavigera, Bastelligera, and other 

 brachiopods possessing an Upper Palaeozoic facies right up 

 to the base of the Jurassic must always impress the New 

 Zealand Trias with Palaeozoic aftinities, and tend to correlate 

 it with the Alpine Trias of Europe rather than the beds of the 

 great German Triassic basin. Palaeontology will doubtless pro- 

 vide general systematic types, which will assist arrangement 

 into smaller divisions, and afford a safe basis for correlations 

 with distant lands. 



Mataura Series. 



(Syn., Mataura Series, Lindsay, Hector, and Hutton ; Puta- 

 taka Formation, Hutton ; Mataura, Pulataka, Flag Hill, 

 and Bastion Series, Cox ; and Catlin's River, Hector.) 

 The Putataka formation of Hutton included this forma- 

 tion and a portion of the Shaw's Bay formation, and also the 

 original Mataura series of Lindsay and Hector. The Ma- 

 taura series of the latter was, in 1878, subdivided by the 

 Geological Survey into five series, as follows : — * 



I (a.) Mataura series. 

 Jurassic j (6.) Putataka series, 

 ((c.) Flag Hill series. 



J ■ . \{a.) Catlin's River series (Hector), 

 ijiassici j^ j Bastion series. 



♦ Eepp. Geol. Surv., 1877-78, p. vii. 



