58 Transactions. 



Art. VII. — Notes on the Geology of the Patea District. 



By P. G. Morgan, [M.A., F.G.S., Director of the Geological Survey of 



New Zealand. 



[Bead before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 27th October, 1920 ; received by Editor, 

 10th December, 1920 ; issued separately, 27th June, 1921.] 



Previous Investigations. 



Mr. John Buchanan, in a paper read before the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society in September, 1869 (2),* mentioned the blue clay of Patea, which 

 he placed in the Wanganui beds, but expressed a doubt as to this being 

 its right position. It might, he thought, belong to a somewhat older 

 formation. 



In January, 1884, Professor F. W. Hutton, accomjjanied by Mr. S. H. 

 Drew, of Wanganui, spent a day in the neighbourhood of Patea. In a 

 paper on the Wanganui system (3), he writes (p. 340), — 



" On the sea-coast at Patea, south of the mouth of the river, blue clay 

 with fossils passes up gradually into a blue micaceous sandy clay, apparently 

 unfossiliferous. Upon this lies about 12 ft. of yellow sand ; then cemented 

 gravel 4 ft. thick, followed by grey sands, and then red and yellow sands. 

 The upper beds form the cliff, and, not being very accessible, I did not 

 examine them closely, but I could find no fossils in the tumbled blocks. 

 The sequence is remarkably like that at Wanganui. The yellow sand is 

 distinctly separated from the blue micaceous clay upon which it rests, but 

 without any appearance of unconformity. The number of species obtained 

 from the blue clay is twenty-six, of which 77 per cent, are Recent. Three 

 species of Pareora shells, not known from any other part of the Wanganui 

 system, have been found in the blue clay at Patea. They are Oliva neo- 

 zelanica, Slruthiolaria cingulata, and a species of Cucullaea (fragments)." 



In 1886 Professor James Park, at that time a member of the Geological 

 Survey staff, examined the coast-line from Kai-iwi to Patea (see 4, pp. 26, 

 55, 56, 57, &c). He states that there are evidences of the existence of a 

 submerged forest between Wanganui and Patea, and describes a "drift 

 formation" which "extends as a maritime belt from the Ruahine Range 

 to the foot of Mount Egmont." This formation is well exposed in the 

 cliffs between Wanganui and Patea (4, p. 59 ; see also 7, p. 414). From the 

 blue clays exposed near the mouth of the Patea River Park obtained the 

 following fossils : Malletia australis Q. & G. (listed as Solenella austmlis 

 Zittel), Atrina zelandica (Gray), Nucula nitidula A. Adams, Struthiolaria 

 cingulata Zittel, and fish-scales. 



* This and other numbers enclosed in brackets refer to list of literature at end of 

 paper. 



