618 Transactio7is, 



that tlie series under discussion bears a fairly close lithological resemblance 

 to certain strata found near Whangaroa Harbour, which we consider may 

 be of late Palaeozoic or early Mesozoic age. 



Rahia Series. 



This name it is proposed to apply to the series of thin bedded purplish 

 and greenish claystones and well-stratified greyish greensandstones which 

 is exposed in the area under consideration. 



The rocks of the Rahia Series outcrop on the shore of Parengarenga 

 Harbour near Yates's house, and again in the low clif?s bordering the har- 

 bour towards the mouth of Waitiki Creek, and form the two limbs of an 

 anticUne. 



At the south end of Rahia Bay the Rahia rocks, consisting of purplish 

 and greenish shales, and Avell - bedded, greyish greensandstones, in some 

 places containing many plant-remains, have been intruded and baked by 

 igneous rocks, to be presently described, and are unconformably overlain 

 by the gravels of the Older Debris. A little north of this outcrop the rocks 

 are seen in their unaltered state ; but farther north still, in Taupiri Bay, 

 they are again associated with igneous rocks. 



No clear evidence of the geological age of the Rahia Series has yet been 

 adduced, but Hector* considers it to be Cretaceo-tertiary. Certainly the 

 members of this series bear a considerable lithological resemblance to cer- 

 tain facies of a series near Whangaroa, to which a late Mesozoic or early 

 Tertiary age has been assigned both by McKayf and ourselves. 



Coal Point Series. 



We w^ould tentatively apply this name to a series of sedimentary 

 and pyroclastic rocks which, beginning in the hills north of Te Kao 

 Settlement, forms a semicircular belt touching the north coast at Spirits 

 Bay, and having a considerable exposure on the east coast near Coal 

 Point. 



(1.) Lower Beds. — The lowest beds of the Coal Point Series are impure 

 carbonaceous greensandstones, mudstones, and grits, with moUuscan and 

 plant remains, fragments of andesitic rock, and thin inconstant coaly part- 

 ings. These beds are exposed at the north head of Parengarenga Harbour, 

 and it is probable that within the last sixty or seventy years they were 

 also to be seen at the south head of Parengarenga Harbour, where they 

 have since been covered by the advancing sands. 



In places the carbonaceous sandstones and grits contain irregular lenses 

 of lignite. At the time of ou.r visit the best outcrops of the " coal " were 

 said to be covered by drifted sand. Those seen were too poor in quality 

 and limited in quantity to be of any commercial value. 



HectorJ gives the fol 

 Fixed carbon 

 Hydrocarbon 

 Water . . 

 Ash 



owing analysis of the lignite : — - 



41-65 

 18-11 

 30-03 

 10-21 



100-00 



* Rep. G.S., 1894, pp. xvi and 86. 

 tRep. G.S., 1894, p. 86. 

 t Rep. G.«.. 1894, p. xvii. 



