Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. 421 
meetings. Acquaintances would be formed to mutual advantage, and local 
rivalries led, at least in intellectual matters, into such channels that they 
would benefit the country at large. And thus the high position which the 
New Zealand Institute has already obtained amongst kindred societies would 
not only be maintained, but the advantages derivable from it would become 
more manifest in each part of the colony where the meetings of its members 
were held. 
Proceeding to the few topics T have chosen for to-night, I wish to make 
first a few observations on the Geology of the Canterbury plains, as far as their 
mode of formation is concerned. I thought that this subject, to which I have 
devoted considerable time, and of which my reports on the formation of the 
Canterbury plains, 1864, and on the head waters of the River Rakaia, 1867, 
give the necessary data, did not require any more consideration, except adding 
those new details which further surveys and altitude observations, or railway 
cuttings, etc., would bring within our reach. However, as Captain Hutton 
(in a paper “ On the Date of the Last Great Glacier Period in New Zealand,” 
published in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, Vol. V., 
pp. 384—393) has come to the conclusion that the Canterbury plains are of 
marine formation—although when writing that paper he had never seen them, 
and moreover finds, in a most peculiar way, in my own reports a portion of the 
proofs for his assertion—I am obliged to return to this subject to put the reader 
of that article on his guard ; the more so, as Captain Hutton, since the article 
alluded to has been written, has paid a flying visit to the Malvern Hills, 
examining at the same time the middle course of the Rakaia and Waimakariri 
rivers, and, as he since informed me verbally, has not changed his mind in 
respect to this geological question. 
Fortunately, since my reports were written the extensive surveys of Mr. 
Doyne and other gentlemen, made for railway and other purposes, have 
confirmed in a remarkable degree my views concerning the “ fan” character 
of the deposits of the principal rivers in every respect. I wish to refer 
here only to the interesting and highly-instructive map attached to Mr. 
Doyne's second report upon the River Waimakariri and the lower plains, 
where the fan levels are shown overa large area of ground. Instead of refuting 
all Captain Hutton's principal arguments, or showing how that gentleman has 
not read my reports with such care as he should have done if he intended to 
quote therefrom, I may be allowed to present you, as concisely as possible, 
with a short résumé of the points at issue. 
I stated and proved, as I trust somewhat satisfactorily, that in post-pliocene 
times— without, however, being obliged to assume greater elevation of the land, 
which may or may not have existed— glaciers of enormous size were formed, 
which reached far down the present river valleys, in some instances even 
