1919.] 
New Zealand Institute Science Congress. 
289 
Note on the Mechanical Composition of the so-called Loess at Timaru, 
by L. J Wild. 
(This paper will appear in the Transactions.) 
The Organization and Functions of a State Geological Survey, by P. G. 
Morgan. 
Introduction. 
In order to form a well - balanced opinion concerning the proper 
organization and functions of a State Geological Survey, an investigation 
of the history and organization of past and present Geological Surveys 
is necessary. Unfortunately, many important circumstances in the history 
of official organizations are never published, largely for the reason that 
they are of such a character, in the opinion of those most responsible for 
their happening, as not to be suitable for the light of day. Others, again, 
are considered too trivial for record. However, although it is generally 
not possible to ascertain the inner history of State departments, there 
is no great difficulty in making fairly accurate generalizations, which will 
be applicable in some though not in all cases. 
Organization of some Existing Geological Surveys. 
Great Britain and Ireland. 
In considering the organization of a Geological Survey one naturally 
turns first of all to Great Britain and Ireland, not only because Britain is 
the mother-land of New Zealand, but because there the first real though 
unofficial geological surveys were made by William Smith, the “ Father 
of English Geology.” From 1814 to 1835 J. Macculloch and others, 
as specially appointed officers of the Trigonometrical Survey of Britain, 
did a considerable amount of geological surveying in Great Britain and 
Ireland. About 1835 H. T. de la Beche was appointed Director of the 
Ordnance Geological Survey. In later years the British Geological Survey 
became a branch of the Board of Education, having some measure of 
connection with the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries.* The connection 
with the Board of Agriculture presumably arose out of the attention 
given by the Geological Survey to superficial deposits and especially to 
the soil. On the 1st April, 1905, the Irish branch was transferred to the 
Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. 
In 1912 the Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain had 
under his control five district geologists, twenty-two geologists, one or 
more palaeontologists, one or two petrographers, and one or two chemists, 
and the Museum of Practical Geology with its various officers. Outside 
specialists were also employed by the palaeontological branch. In 1917 
the regular staff, owing to war conditions, was smaller, but at least two 
outside geologists were employed temporarily on field-work. 
The principal function of the British Geological Survey is officially 
defined as the preparation of a complete geological map of Great Britain 
and Ireland. There is no topographical branch, the splendid maps of 
the Ordnance Survey supplying all that is wanted as a base for geological 
survey. Considerable attention is paid to agronomic geology, and hence 
most of the geological maps show the surface formations particularly well. 
The maps now being published are mostly on the scale of 1 in. to the 
* Colliery Guardian, vol. 112, p. 659, 6th*.Oct., 1916. 
22—Science. 
