THE HOT LAKES DISTRICT, NEW ZEALAND. 



145 



Professor Logan Lobley, who is here, can, I think, give ns some 

 interesting remarks on the geological aspect of the country. 



(The photographic slides were then exhibited on the screen.) 



Professor Logan Lobley, F.G.S. — I am much obliged to you 

 for the honour you have done me in asking me to take part in the 

 discussion at so early a period of the evening. 



I must congratulate the Institute on setting the example to other 

 Societies by inviting a lady to read a paper on a scientific subject. 

 I would also congratulate the author on giving us a most 

 interesting and valuable paper respecting a district of such great 

 physical interest. 



The volcanic district of New Zealand, both of North Island and 

 South Island, is very remarkable in one respect. I have in my 

 mind compared the Eotorua district and the similarity with the 

 Phlegrean fields of Italy and that district with a portion of the 

 .surface of the moon ; but there is a distinct difference between the 

 aspect of the surface of the Rotorua district and that of 

 the Phlegrean fields. They are both volcanic ; but in the 

 Italian district, as all those know who have been to Italy, there is 

 a preponderance of crater features, while in the Rotorua district 

 that preponderance of craters is less conspicuous. That, I think, 

 is entirely due to the fact of the great preponderance of acidic 

 rocks in the New Zealand area, which gives such large deposits of 

 pumaceous ejectamenta and of siliceous sinter from the boiling 

 springs, and this interferes very much with the crater-like character 

 •of the area. 



There is another point that has never been noticed, as far as 

 I am aware, and it is of great interest, namely, the long continuance 

 •of volcanic action on the Nev/ Zealand area, the volcanic action 

 of the Neapolitan volcanic and those of Sicily and the Lipari 

 islands. All those volcanic hills and craters have had their origin 

 within the Pliocene period; whereas the volcanic action has 

 ■continued in New Zealand from before Tertiary times ; for the 

 newest volcanic rocks of the South Island are overlaid by Tertiary 

 rocks ; so that we have evidence of a very long continuance of 

 volcanic action in the New Zealand region which continues into the 

 present time. This volcanic action, in one part of this paper, is 

 said to be scarcely a true volcanic action because there was no lava 

 in the eruption of 1886. But it does not follow at all that the 



