Sleport of Committee No. 31. 



SEISMOLOGICAL PHENOMENA JN 

 AUSTRALASIA. 



Members of Committee. —My. A. B. Biggs, Mr. R. L. J. Ellery, Sir 

 James Hector, Mr. H. C. Russell, Professor Thrcltkll, Mr. C. Todd, 

 Mr. G. Hogben (Secretary). 



Tliiri Report include.s the following Colouifs — New Zealand, New 

 South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 



1. The first work that this Committee has set itself to do 

 is to compile a list of all recorded earthquakes up to the 

 present time, including in that list all the important details as 

 far as they are given in the records. This work had already 

 been done up to the end of 1890 for New Zealand, although 

 the time, direction, duration, and intensity of shock were not 

 included in the list published in the Third ' Volume of the 

 Proceedings. In the ])resent Report are included similar 

 records for New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia 

 up to date, and for New Zealand for the past year (1891), 

 those important details omitted in the former New Zealand 

 records being now included in all cases where possible. The 

 records for Tasmania will, it is hoped, be tabulated in time 

 for our next Report. 



2. In the next place, we have attempted to provide for the 

 future recording of earthquake-shocks in all the Colonies 

 according to a uniform system, and are jileased to be able to 

 say that the forms in use in New Zealand have been adopted 

 (with the necessary alterations) in New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South Australia, and Tasmania. A specimen form is annexed 

 to this Report. It is proj^osed to reduce these returns to 

 tabular form, and to insert the tables foi- future use in the 

 periodical re])orts of the Committee. Instructions to the 

 observers are to be sent out Avith the forms, but it is unnecessary 

 to give them at length here. 



Inasmuch as it is, to a large extent, as part of a world-system 

 of observations that our observations in Australasia will be- 

 come useful, -we propose to do for the Islands of the Pacific, 

 as far as circumstances will admit, what is being done for the 

 Australasian Colonies, and have to thank the Rev. Lorimer 



