REVIEW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5389, 5 July 1878, Page 3

REVIEW.

Geological Survey of New Zealand, by Jaiiee Hector, M.D.FB.S., Director. Reports for 1876-7. Very few people have any idea of the large and valuable amount of work done by the Geological Survey Department. The work is done quietly and unobtrusively, and therefore rarely attracts public attention. Our geological department is excellently managed, and does more and apparently work than do similar departments in Victoria and New South Wales. The Victorian Department publishes beautifully-colored and elaborate geological maps, but as the actual knowledge of many ’of the districts is still slight these can be regarded as being only pro-, vMoually correct; they will, probably, soon "prove to be incorrect. Here, in every year, a volume of reports is published, which contains much new and valuable matter, and which shows the great progress made by the department, and is witness to the skill and energy of its director and staff. The department is a real credit to the colony, and is doing yeoman service in revealing our stores of mineral wealth.

The volume under notice contains an introduction by Dr. Hector, who briefly reviews tho work done during the year. This paper affords important information about many of, the coal mines. Coal and lignite are found in almost all parts, and in moat places are easily obtainable. A strange fashion has arisen in New Zealand, viz., the frequent use of the frequent use of the term lignite. Other countries possess quantities of lignite, but they call it coal. Lignite is a species of brown coal, and the word coal should be used instead of the depreciatory term lignite. The supply of coal seems almost unbounded. The Green Island coalfield district alone extends over 40 square •miles ; the thickness of its seams averaging 18ft. The small Builer coalfield contains upwards of 100,000,000 tons. Coal extends over very wide areas in the IVaikato, Ir. •Hector strongly urges the Government to exercise a watchful care over these mines, and to enforce ail necessary rules for safety. He shows that certain of the mines, are carelessly worked, and makes it clear that unless the coal mine owners mend their ways,' and take greater care, most serious and fatal accidents will certainly follow. Mr. Herbert Cox reports on the geol 'gy of Mount Somers’ District. He discovered limestone “forming an excellent building-stone, and extensive deposits of sands, of high value for glass-making purposes,” and kaolin, so necessary for making porcelain. Mr. McKay furnishes an instructive report oh the geology of the Oamaru and Waitaki district! but to people living in this province, his report on the country between Masterton and Napier will prove of much greater interest Mr. McKay 'started at the Rimutaka and worked his way northward to Napier. He explored the Seventy-Mile Bush, the Manawatu Gorge, and Hawke’s Bay. Mr. McKay discovered in the road cuttings in the SeventyMile Bush quantities of gravel overlying a white rock composed of fine pure pumice sands.* This pumice spreads over a large district, and is . evidence of volcanic action, perhaps of Ruapehu’s activity. Geologists think that the ground now covered by.the SeventyMile Bush was once a large lake, which, became filled up with debris from the Ruahiue range, which at that time must have stood at a far greater elevation than it now does. Sir Roderick Murchison .aptly said that geology is the study of the geography 'of tho past. ° The ’ geologist .discovers , the sites of ancient lakes, of pleistocene rivers, traces the course of moraines and scratched boulders—clear proofs of former ice action. When our geological staff have still further worked out the geology of these islands, they will bo able to tell us much of the past geography, will be able to restore for us the vast continent of which New Zealand, the Chatham, Auckland, and other islands, are the remaining fragments. They will bo able to point out the site of ancient lakes, of long extinct craters, and to tell us whether Cook Strait was or was not ithe site of ah ancient mighty river. Already they have told us much about tho past of these islands. Far south, In ’cold, wintry Otago, they found kauri leaves—positive evidence that the, climate there was warmer far than now, for the delicate Datnmara .Australis cannot live far southof Auckland. The geologists tell us that oaks were once plentiful in New Zealand,though now none exist; No one knows why they disappeared.! New Zealand geology upsets i many of the propositions founded on European, geology,*: and greatly widens the geological horizon, d in New Zealand, diooty-

ledVnous plants- appear in ancient strata," in which, according to European geologists, they are never foutjd. New Zealand is really an old country; some of its strata being almost as ancient as any that have been’ found,in. the so-called Old World. , ’ ’ '' :

Mr. McKay discovered the fossil re.mains of many extinct replies, which have been accurately 'described by Dr. Hector; whose, writings on these, subjects have attracted great attention in scientific circles at flotno. . No traces have yet been fonnd of fossil man, or, indeed, of any mammalia; nor in the fo.siliferous strata have there been found remains of any birds, except a giant penguin. Tn rough the powerful forests ranged no mammalia, but there crawled the Liodou, the Taniwi.asaums raawisaurns, and many other weird and terrible reptiles. United States geologists could boast that their country had produced the largest creature that ever lived,’ viz., the, X iodon, whoso length was more than 100 ft., but mnr geologists can proudly assert that the United States Liodon was a pigmy to our giant Liodon.. Many of these reptiles were as peculiar to New, Zealand as* are now the apterix and the sphenodon. If a fossil-human skeleton could be found, a New Zealand geologist might address it in the language of the American poet— Tell 113 of that scene,—the dim and watery woodland. Songless, silent, hashed, with never bird or insect. Veiled with spreading fronds and screened with tali club-mosses.—

Lycjpodiacea. When beside thee walked the solemn Plesiosaurus, And around thcc crept the festive Ichthyosavus, While from time to.time above thee ilow and circled

Cbearful Pterodactyls. Toll us of tliy food.—those half-marine refections, Crinoids ou the shell and Braobipods au naturcl— Cuttle-fish to which the pieuwc of Victor Hugo Seems a periwinkle.

We cordially recommend these reports to our readers’ notice ; they will find on every page something to interest and instruct them.