EEPOKTS OF EESEAKCH COMMITTEES. 



Beport of the Committee, consisting of Mr. A. Biggs, Mr. E. 

 L. J. Ellery, Sir James Hectok {Secretary), Mr. H. C. 

 EussELL, Professor Thkelfall, and Mr. C. Todd, ap- 

 pointed to investigate and report upon Seismological 

 Phenomena in Australasia. 



Plate XVIII. 



The members of this Committee not having had an oppor- 

 tunity of conferring, the following report, relative to New 

 Zealand only, has been drawn up by the Secretary : — 



All the early records are necessarily very incomplete, and 

 commence with the earthquake felt near D'Urville Island by 

 Captain Furneaux on the 11th May, 1773. 



Subsequently, only prominent shocks are referred to until 

 from the beginning of 1816. The record is therefore very 

 imperfect ; but since 1868, when the present Meteorological 

 Department was organized, and the telegraph brought into 

 operation, the record has been tolerably complete for the whole 

 of the inhabited parts of the colony. The earthquakes during 

 the last twenty-two years have therefore been scheduled, 

 the colony being divided into six districts, each having a 

 characteristic structural peculiarity, as shown on the map 

 exhibited (Pi. XYIIL). 



An analysis of this schedule shows that during the period 

 537 earthquakes have been recorded, of which only 2 were 

 recorded in the northern district of Auckland, 184 in the 

 central district of the North Island, 183 on the east coast of 

 the North Island, 88 on the west coast of the South Island, 

 98 on the east coast, and 30 in the extreme south. 



But, of the above number, 142 were felt only in the middle 

 section of the North Island, between the South Taranaki 

 Bight and the Bay of Plenty ; 147 only in the district between 

 the East Cape and "Wellington ; and 145 were confined to the 

 east and south coasts of the South Island. Of the whole 

 number, only 7 could be identified as having been felt in places 

 outside the colony. 



