514 à Newg@ealand Institute. 
distributed from the horizon of the greensands and Saurian beds, immediately 
overlying the coal up to the grey marls, that closes the cretaceo-tertiary 
series in this district. 
Collectiong have also been made from many localities in the in- 
terior in the district between the Manawatu Gorge and Napier, and 
much valuable information gained for the proper arrangement of the beds 
of tertiary age. The results obtained, which will be found in the Geological 
Survey Reports for the current year, show that the Scinde Island shell 
limestones and underlying fossiliferous sands and gravels belong to the 
horizon of the “ tufaceous clays and lignitiferous deposits " of newer 
pliocene age (see Reference to Geological Map, 1878), while the Te Aute 
and Manawatu Gorge limestones represent the Wanganui series ; the Taipos 
or Hawke Bay series of the map being the equivalent of the Awamoa or 
Pareora beds, which form the base of the Kanieri series in the South 
Island. There is, therefore, no stratigraphical evidence of the existence of 
the Ahuriri formation as proposed by Capt. Hutton, so that his later views 
on the subject, published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 
(Vol. IX., page 590), are confirmed so far as to exclude that term from 
future geological classifications. 
From Whangarei, collections were also made from the beds overlying 
the coal, correlating these with the island sandstone horizon of the West 
Coast. The occurrence of a second or lower limestone was also traced here, 
replacing the coal in certain localities. 
An examination of the country was made between Opotiki and the East 
Cape, but the impracticable character of the country precluded the forward- 
ing of collections from there. The work has gone to connect the geological 
' structure of this block of country with that previously surveyed between 
Poverty Bay and the East Cape. : 
At the present time all the collections of fossils have been worked out 
and the genera roughly determined, the further work of classifying these 
for comparison and description being now in progress. 
The following general Reports have been printed during the past year, 
and will be shortly ready for issue:— 
Progress Report 1873-74, 164 pp., 15 plates and maps * 
» 1874—76, 191 pp., 16 ^ 
» : 1876-77, 157 pp., 38 ` 
METEOROLOGY. 
The stations at which observations are made are fourteen in number— 
viz., Mongonui, Auckland, Taranaki, Napier, Wanganui, Wellington, Nel- 
son, Cape Campbell, Christchurch, Bealey, Hokitika, Dunedin, Queenstown, 
-— 
* Partly published and distributed in 1874, 
Frases, SN NEA EY 
