' AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION. 9 1 



prepared for comparing with the fauna and flora of other areas fail 

 from this cause. It is absolutely necessary to discriminate not only 

 localities, but also to study more carefully the relative abundance of 

 individuals as well as of species befoi - e -instituting comparisons. The 

 facility and rapidity with which change is effected at the present time 

 should put as against rashly accepting species which may have been 

 accidental intruders, though wafted by natural causes, as belonging to 

 the original endemic fauna and flora. Further close and extended 

 study, especially of our marine fauna, is urgently required. We have 

 little knowledge beyond the littoral zone, except when a great storm 

 heaves up a gathering of nondescript or rare treasure from the deep. 

 Of dredging we have had but little done, and only in shallow waters, 

 with the exception of a few casts of the deep sea trawl from the 

 "Challenger." When funds permit, a zoological station for the study of 

 the habits of our sea fishes and for the propagation of such introductions 

 as the lobster and the crab would be advantatageous. I observe that 

 lately such an establishment has been placed on the Island of Mull, in 

 Scotland, at a cost of £400, and that it is expected to be nearly self- 

 supporting. With respect to food fishes, and still more with respect to 

 some terrestrial forms of life, we, in common with all the Australasian 

 colonies, require a more scientific and a less casual system of acclimati- 

 sation than we have had in the past. One must talk with bated breath 

 of the injuries that have been inflicted on these colonies by the rash 

 disturbance of the balance of nature Had our enthusiasm been properly 

 controlled by foresight, our settlers would probably not have to grieve 

 over the losses they now suffer through many insect pests, through 

 small birds and rabbits, and which they will in the future suffei 

 through the vermin that are now being spread in all directions. 



There are many other points that I intended to touch upon, but 

 all have been forestalled by the remarks of his Excellency the Governor 

 and Mr. Goodale. L am the better pleased that these gentlemen have 

 spoken upon them, as they were remarks relating to the advantages of 

 the Association. I feel, however, that I would have liked to have given 

 a description of what had been ascertained relating to the geology of 

 New Zealand. I might state that the early explorers appeared to 

 have had only the most vague ideas of the geologies of the countries 

 they explored. Indeed, the whole science of geology seemed to have 

 been almost brought into existence during the last fifty or fifty-five 

 years. It existed only as drawing its knowledge from other branches 

 of science; it barely existed as a science until these branches had 

 become established. In New Zealand our geological explorations have 

 been made since the matters I have referred to have been settled, and 

 the result has been that we have attained competent and tolerably 

 complete knowledge of the structure of the country. New Zealand is 

 probably the outcrop of a great earth-wave, the hollow of which formed 

 the submarine plateau lying to the east. New Zealand appears to have 

 first originated as dry land in the palaeozoic times, merely as volcanic 

 islands rising in a sea of moderate depth. Alter the palaeozoic period 

 there appears to have been a great blank in the geological formation. 

 It was a period during which no deposits took place, and it is probable 

 that all which had been deposited were removed." 



