Dr. G. V. Hayek. Sir Julius von Haast. 



583 



matter. Dr. von Hochstetter was given leave of absence 

 froni the frigate for six months to make explorations at the 

 charges of the Government of New-Zealand. Sir Julius, 

 then piain Dr. Haast, was associated with him, became bis 

 colleague and trusted friend, while bis subsequent journeys, 

 y\s scientific conclusions and opinions were accepted by 

 the Austrian savant, as authoritative concerning the geology 



of this Colony. 



The North Island explorations finished, Hochstetter, 

 after a short survey of the Nelson coalfields for the Govern- 

 ment of that Province, went Home again. The independent 

 Colonial career of Sir Julius dates from then. His tirst 

 appointment was as Provincial Geologist of Nelson, and 

 while in that Service during the latter part of iSSg, he 

 undertook more explorations in the south-west of the 

 Province, then an uninhabited wilderness. Goal and gold 

 were shown to exist in abundance, and the official »Notes 

 on the Geology and Geography« of the country, published 

 by him, were rieh in interests of a widely varied character. 

 The next year proved another turning point in his career. 

 In Canterbury, towards the end of 1860, the fate of 

 the great Moorhouse tunnel scheme was trembling in the 

 balance. Messrs Smith and Knight, the original contractors, 

 had come and put down their experimental borings, and 

 driven their shafts. They had quickly met with rock of 

 the most terrible hardness, and supposing the whole of 

 the hill to be of the same adamantine nature, threw off 

 the project as an impossibihty. The sanguine Super- 

 intendent was unconvinced. He sent for Dr. Haast to 

 report on the geological formation of the hill. The report 

 was to the effect that Lyttelton Harbour was an extinct 

 crater; the strata on the hill in question would be found 

 to consist of a number of ancient lava streams of varying 

 hardness, which the tunnel would cut obliquely; and that 

 consequently, the rock would be of all consistencies, from 

 basaltic impenetrability down to something little worse than 

 Consolidated ashes. Armed with this scientific authority, 

 Mr. Moorhouse went to Melbourne, Messrs Holmes and 



