A'ew Zealand InstiHUe Science Congress. 479 



briefly stated as follows : It is generally accepted that a good suj)ply of 

 calcium carbonate is necessary in the soil for the efficient carrying-on of the 

 process of nitrification, though it is difficult to say in quantitative terms 

 exactly what amount constitutes a sufficiency. Analyses, of which the 

 results are as yet unpublished, show that the quantity of carbonate of 

 lime in CanterlDury Plains soils is small — from O'l to 0"2 per cent. — and 

 yet nitrification apparently proceeds at a satisfactory rate, since, so far 

 as we know, ordinary crops are not markedly benefited by supplies of 

 nitrogenous fertilizers. This research aims at determining the effect on the 

 rate of nitrification produced by adding varying quantities of carbonate 

 of lime to typical soils. 



" Cold Storage of Fruit," by Messrs. Logan and W. C. Morris. 



" Agriculture's Debt to Science," by Sir James Wilson. 



SECTION 2.— GEOLOGY. 

 Tuesday, 4th February, 1919, Noon. 



Present : Dr. C. A. Cotton, Vice-President, in the chair, and a number 

 of members. 



Apologies for absence were received from Drs. Marshall and Henderson, 

 Professor Park, and Messrs. Uttley and Bartrum. 



The programme of papers for the meeting of the following day was 

 arranged, and the question of excursions by the section was discussed. 



Wednesday, 5th February, 1919, 9.30 a.m. 



Present : Dr. C. A. Cotton, Vice-President, in the chair, and thirteen 

 others. 



Excursion. — Mr. Speight announced that he had made arrangements 

 for an excursion to Quail Island in the afternoon. 



Papers. — " The Older Gravels of North Canterbury," by Mr. R. Speight. 

 (Printed in the Transactions, pp. 269-81.) 



" Geological and Palaeontological Notes on the Palliser Bay District," 

 by Dr. J. Allan Thomson. 



abstract. 



The Wairarapa limestone, of Waitotaran age, which McKay describes as 

 present on the eastern side of the Wairarapa depression from Cape Kidnap- 

 pers south to Martinborough, does not continue to Palliser Bay. The pro- 

 bable explanation is that the Haurangi Mountains, consisting of greywackes 

 and argillites, represent a block uplifted along a nearly north-south fault on 

 their east side, and that the continuation of the limestone will be found 

 in the fault-angle to the east. In the Ruakokopatuna Valley, near McLeod's 

 station, along part of which the fault runs, the western side is formed by 

 greywackes and argillites, but the eastern by Wairarapa limestone separated 

 from the underlying greywacke by a thin bed of greensand. This is the first 

 known glauconitic horizon in the Waitotaran, and, as was expected, it 

 yielded new species of brachiopods — viz., Neothyris sp. and Terebratulina sp. 



The mudstones forming the cliffs on the north-west corner of Palliser 

 Bay rest on a thin bed of gritty sandstone containing Terehratella neo- 

 zelandica and Hemithyris antipodum, and this in turn rests unconforniably 

 on greywackes. The lowest layers of the mudstone contain numerous fossil 



