1892-93.] 5 2 9 



Thames district. In Stafford township and elsewhere gold is 

 found embedded in a morainic argillaceous clay, with intersecting 

 quartz reefs. Other alluvial goldfields are situated at Blue Spur, 

 Kumara, and elsewhere. The theory of the formation of auri- 

 ferous veins was next discussed, and it was pointed out that the 

 gold must have been injected into the rock-fissures during 

 periods of intense heat and pressure. The coal-beds of New 

 Zealand belong to the Cretaceous and Eocene periods, and are 

 therefore immensely more recent than those of Britain. The 

 price of coal varies from 18s. to 36s. per ton according to quality. 

 The deposits of antimony, bog iron-ore, and sulphur were also 

 mentioned, and the paper closed with a description of the 

 building stones most used in the colony. A number of inter- 

 esting specimens were shown in illustration of the paper. 



The next paper was by Miss M. K. Andrews, on the subject 

 of " Denudation at Cultra, County Down," and was read by 

 the junior secretary. The writer stated that tradition, history, 

 and geological evidence all bear testimony to the continued in- 

 terchange, within certain limits, of land and water. Although 

 the deep depressions of the ocean and the main trends of the 

 land seem from the very earliest geological periods to have 

 preserved the same general positions on the globe, yet a careful 

 comparison of the upheaved stratified formations, with the layers 

 of gravel, shells, sand, and mud deposited in the comparatively 

 shallow seas around our coasts, leaves little doubt that the 

 greater part of our land areas was at one period or another laid 

 down upon the floor of the sea. From the raised beaches of our 

 own coasts to the great terraces of Patagonia, rising like mighty 

 steps, one behind the other, we see the effects of the same co- 

 operating actions — erosion, deposition, and upheaval. So also 

 in the present, we know that some regions of the earth are 

 relatively rising, others are gradually sinking. The sea is 

 making encroachments on certain coasts, it is receding on 

 others. As a general rule, where the rocks are hard, erosion is 

 slow ; where they are soft and more easily disintegrated, it is 

 rapid. Striking illustrations of marine erosion might be drawn 



