REVIEW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5401, 19 July 1878, Page 7

REVIEW.

Geological Survey of New Zealand, by James Hector, M.O.FR.S., Director. Reports for 1870-7.

Very few people have any idea of the large and valuable amount of work done by the Geological Survey Department. The work ia done quietly and unobtrusively, and therefore rarely attracts public attention. Our geological department is excellently managed, and does more and apparently better 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 t.he districts is still slight these can be regarded as being only provisionally correct; they willj 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 the 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 most places are easily obtainable. A strange fashion ban 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, aud'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 scams averaging ISft. The small Duller coalfield contains upwards of 100,000,000 tons. Coal extends over very wide areas in the Waikato. Dr. Hector strongly urges the Government to exercise a watchful care over these mines, and to enforce all 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 geology of Mount Somers’ District. He discovered limestone '‘forming an excellent building-stone, and extensive deposits of sands, of high value for glass-making purposes,” aud kaolin, so necessary for making porcelain. Mr. McKay furnishes an iestructive report on the geology of the Oamaru and Waitaki district; but to people living in this province, his report on the country between Masterton aud 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 SeveutyMile Bush was once a large lake, which became filled up with debris from the Ruahiue ran"©, 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 the 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 be able to tell ua 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 be able to point out the site of ancient lakes, of long extinct craters, and to tell ua whether Cook Strait was or was not. the site of an ancient mighty river. Already they have told us much about the past of these islands. Far south, in cold, wintry Otago, they found kauri leaves—positive evidence that the climate there was wanner far than now, for the delicate Dammara Australis oannot live far south of Auckland. The geologists' tell us that oaks were once plentiful in New Zealand, though now non© exist. No one knows why they disappeared. New Zealand geology upsets many of the propositions founded on European geology, and greatly widens the geological horizon. In New Zealand, dicotyledonous plants appear in ancient strata, in which, according to European geologists, they are never found. 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 remains 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 Home. No traces have yet been found of fossil man, or, indeed, of ony mammalia; nor in the fo siliferous strata have there been-found remains of any birds, except a giant penguin. Through thepowerful forests ranged no mammalia, but there crawled the Liodou, the Taniwhasaurua mawisaurus, 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 Liodon, whose length was more than 100 ft., but our geologists can proudly assert that the United States Liodon was a pigmy to our giant Liodou. 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— Toll ns of that scono,—the dim and watery woodland, Songloaa, silent, hushed, with never bird or insect. Veiled with spreading fronds and screened with tall club-mosses, — ■ Lycopodiacca. When beside thee walked the solemn Plesiosaurus, And around thee crept the festive Iriithyosarus, While from time to time above thee How and circled Cheerful Pterodactyls. 'Poll us of tby food.—those half-marine refections, Crinoids on the shell and Brachipods an naiurd— Cuttle-fish to which the pieuvre 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.