Philosophical Institute of Canterhui'y . 421 



meetings. Acquaintances would be formed to mutual advantage, and local 

 rivalries led, at least in intellectual matters, into su "h 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 ])lains, 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 B-akaia, 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. Y., 

 pp. 384-393) has come to the conclusion that the Canterbury plains are of 

 mai'ine 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 Pakaia 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 Piver Waimakariri and the lower plains, 

 where the fan levels are shown over a 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 resume 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 oven 



