870 Transactions. — Geology. 



communication to that Society, which was the same as the 

 synopsis of the younger formations of New Zealand, published in 

 the " Eeports of the Geological Survey" for the year 1871-72. 

 Captain Hutton, however, adds that the new classification 

 includes modifications subsequently made. These, however, 

 cannot affect the chronological arrangement of the different series 

 or groups of strata, without at once destroying all semblance 

 which the latter might have to the former classification ; and we 

 are compelled to take the different series included under the 

 Pareora system as a chronological arrangement, and in the order 

 in which they are stated. Those series, in descending order, 

 are : — 



1. Awatere series. 



2. Kanieri series. 



3. Tawhiti series. 



4. Ahuriri series. 



5. Waitemata series ; and 



6. The brown coals of the Pomahaka, etc. 



The Awatere and Kanieri series, or groups, formerly con- 

 stituted the Pareora formation, the Ahuriri formation being the 

 next underlying. Now, however, we have between these the 

 Tawhiti series ; and it is manifest that Captain Hutton has 

 abandoned the idea that the Ahuriri and Pareora formations are 

 the same. If it is otherwise, he makes no distinction (stratigra- 

 phical or palaeontological) between the Scinde Island limestones 

 and the rocks forming the Taipos, on the east coast of Wellington, 

 or the brown coal beds of the Pomahaka, in Otago ; all the 

 divisions being referred, not to the relative parts of a system of 

 rock-formations, but to a single series, having strict equivalents 

 in all the localities where rocks belonging to the Pareora system 

 are present. 



On the 2nd July last, Captain Hutton read, before the 

 Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, a paper on the " Geology 

 of Scinde Island," in which, for the first time, he describes the 

 limestones present in Scinde Island, the lower of which he 

 refers to the Ahuriri series of his last classification, and the 

 upper to the Wanganui system and Petane series of the same. 

 He says that the upper limestone, with the accompanying under- 

 lying sandy beds, is unconformable to the lower limestones, and 

 shows them highly so in the section which accompanies his 

 paper. It is further said that the lower limestone is the 

 equivalent of the Te Ante limestone, which is also stated to be 

 the equivalent of the Pohui limestone of Te Waka. Of the 

 24 species of fossil shells collected from the lower or Ahuriri 

 limestone, 15, or 61 per cent., are noted as recent species; and 

 we must remember that the original Hawke's Bay group was 

 supposed to contain no more than 20 per cent, of recent shells. 



