240 Transactions. 



fully developed in the Oamaru district. My reasons for wishing to retain 

 the name " Oamaru " for this system are as follows : — 



(1.) Historical : (a) The locality is the one from which the first collec- 

 tion of fossils in New Zealand was made ; and (b) Button's Oamaru system 

 included nearly all the strata in the district, and his Oamaru system 

 includes the majority of the rocks classed in the Oamaru system by me. 

 The retention of the name will serve to keep alive the memory of the man 

 who did so much spade-work in the palaeontology and stratigraphy of 

 New Zealand. 



(2.) Palaeontological : The fossils in the Oamaru area have been far 

 more fully collected, studied, and classified than in any other region where 

 the system of rocks is well developed. 



(3.) In the Oamaru district there is a fuller development of the various 

 strata of a fossil-bearing nature than elsewhere. Between Shag Point, 

 Wharekuri, and the Waihao River the strata are continuous, and so far 

 as known they are not disturbed by any minor diastrophic movements. 

 A nearly complete series of fossiliferous strata is nov/ known : — 



Awamoa . . . . . . 36-8 per cent. Recent species. 



Target Oully 34 



Otiake . . . . . . 24 



Wharekuri . . . . . . 23 



Waihao Valley greensands . . 10-15 ,, ,, 



Bortonian . . . . . . 18 ,, „ 



Hampden (early Tertiary) . . 10-3 ,, „ 

 Shag Point (Senonian). 



At Mount Harris there are beds which are stratigraphically still higher, 

 but satisfactory collections have not yet been made from them. In no 

 other district where the strata have such a full develojiment have so many 

 fossils been collected from such a variety of horizons. Confusion with 

 Hutton's Oamaru system is easily avoided, for it has already fallen into 

 disuse. 



Thomson* has lately proposed to call my Oamaru system the Notocene 

 system. This appears to me to be a very unfortunate suggestion. The 

 suffix " cene " has a definite and satisfactory meaning when used in the 

 ordinary names of the divisions of the Tertiary era. This meaning of 

 ■' recent " ceases to have any point when used in the word Notocene. The 

 word " noto " should mean either that this is the farthest southern point 

 where such rocks have been found or that the formation is common to 

 southern latitudes. Neither of these is the case, for younger rocks and 

 tlieir contents have been fully described from Seymour Island. There are 

 also well-known and wide occurrences of young rocks in South America 

 and in Australia, and these cannot be included under the same name as the 

 New Zealand formations. The name Notocene would thus be scientifically 

 misleading, and it is at once pretentious and inexact. If it is desired to 

 use a name that has no special locality origin, and if hybridism is not an 

 offence, I would suggest " Maoricene " ; or if a name with a special and 

 exact meaning is required " Notonesinene " might be used, as this might 

 well be taken to mean " The young rocks of southern islands." 



However, as I have already said, the retention of the name " Oamaru " 

 is desirable for the reasons — -(1) it is historical ; (2) it helps to emphasize 



* J. A. Thomson, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 49, p. 398-413, 1917. 



