48 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[Mar. 
In the Rhaetic one meets the first signs of New Zealand as a land-mass. 
There are also plant-beds of Lower and Middle Jura. These show much 
agreement with beds of the same age in Australia and Farther India, and 
also with those of Grahamland and Ternera (Chile). Thus one could pro¬ 
pose a land connection between all these places; but it seems very doubtful 
if such was the case. The great mountain-folding was pre-Middle Creta¬ 
ceous. The rising mountains were worn down and more or less levelled; 
then came the great transgression of the Middle Cretaceous, which has left 
its trace in the beds of the Clarence Valley, in formations of the Upper 
Gault. Transgressive beds of similar age are found in Japan, Queen Char¬ 
lotte Islands, California, Peru, Farther India, Conducia (near Mozambique), 
Madagascar, and Zulu land. In most of these places the Cenomanian follows 
upon the Gault, but not so in New Zealand. In the Kaikouras the Amuri 
limestone lies on the Gault, and the Upper Senonian is wanting. The 
latter occurs at onU a few places in the South Island. 
There is a marked resemblance between these Upper Senonian beds and 
those of Quinquina, South Patagonia, and Grahamland. The outcropping 
of these formations proves the existence of a coast round the South Pacific 
in younger Cretaceous times. 
The present inner margin of the Cretaceous beds is not identical with 
the coast of the Cretaceous sea. If in the Clarence Valley the Middle 
Cretaceous and the Amuri limestone have a thickness of 3,000 m., then 
these beds must have reached much farther inland. 
As in New Zealand., uncertainty as to the boundary between Cretaceous 
and Tertiary existed in South Patagonia and Grahamland ; but recent 
palaeontological discoveries have enabled a separation to be made. 
The present mountain-ranges do not owe their form to the principal 
folding of the Mesozoic. In the beginning of the Tertiary New Zealand 
was elevated, but soon divided by the breaking-down of the west coast. 
The involving of Tertiary rocks at Lake Wakatipu in an overthrust, also 
the overthrust of the Kaikouras, show that important dislocations took 
place in the younger Tertiary, the present mountains being produced 
during this period. Strong elevation and depression followed. 
The scarcity of vertebrate animals before the arrival of man show T s long 
isolation, at least since the Upper Cretaceous, when the South Pacific Ocean 
was already in existence. J. Marwick. 
A New Theory of Polynesian Origins, by R. B. Dixon. Proc. Am . PUL 
Soc vol. 19, No. 4, 1920. 
Dr. Dixon concludes from a survey of all the work done thus far in 
fj 
physical anthropology that the underlying stratum in Polynesia is Negrito. 
Later came a wave of Negroid peoples. Finally came a Malayoid wave, 
submerging the preceding types in Western Polynesia. These waves were 
not rapid conquests, but slow drifts. H. D. S, 
A Maori Food-howl ( Kumete ), by H. S. Beasley. Man, 1919, May, No. 36. 
Mr. Beasley figures and describes an ancient and beautifully carved 
kumete. H. D. S. 
Some Unrecorded Maori Decorative Work, by H. Ling Roth. Man, 
1920, May, No. 39. 
Dr. Ling Roth figures and describes examples of modem Maori flax work. 
H.D-.S. 
By Authority : Marcus F. Marks, Government Printer, Wellington. 
1,800/1/21—806 
