1.—The classification of the Cainozoics as employed here is virtually the same as given by McCoy in connection with his work for the Victorian Geological Survey. The writer has obtained further evidence to support these conclusions from special studies in the groups of the cetacea, mollusca and the protozoa. The alternative classification of the cainozoics as given by one or two later authors, introducing the useful local terminology of Hall and Pritchard for the various stages or assises is as follows:—
| TATE AND DENNANT. Stages. | HALL AND PRITCHARD. Stages. | ||
| Werrikooian | Pleistocene Pliocene | Werrikooian | Pliocene. |
| Kalimnan | Miocene | Kalimnan | Miocene. |
| Janjukian | (?) Oligocene | Balcombian | Eocene. |
| Balcombian | Eocene | Janjukian and Aldingan in part | Eocene. |
| Aldingan (lower beds at that loc.) | Eocene | ||
2.—Or Permo-carboniferous. As the series is held by some authorities to partake of the faunas of both epochs, it is preferable to use the shorter word, which moreover gives the natural sequence. There is, however, strong evidence in favour of using the term Permian for this important series.
3.—Mr. W. S. Dun regards the Lepidodendron beds of W. Australia, New South Wales and Queensland as of Upper Devonian age. There is no doubt, from a broad view of the whole question as to the respective age of these beds in Australia, that the one series is continuous, and probably represents the Upper Devonian and the Lower Carboniferous of the northern hemisphere.
4.—These limestones contain a fauna of brachiopods and corals which, at present, seems to point to the series as intermediate between the older Silurian and the Upper Ordovician.
Vertical Column of Fossiliferous Strata, New Zealand.
| ERA. | EPOCHS IN EUROPE. | EQUIVALENT STRATA IN NEW ZEALAND. | |||
| CAINOZOIC or TERTIARY | HOLOCENE | River Alluvium. Beach Sands and Gravel. | |||
| PLEISTOCENE | Raised Beaches. Older Gravel Drifts. Moraines. Boulder Clays. | ||||
| PLIOCENE |
| ||||
| MIOCENE | Oamaru series. | ||||
| OLIGOCENE | Waimangaroa series. | ||||
| MESOZOIC or SECONDARY | CRETACEOUS | Waipara series (of Hutton). | |||
| JURASSIC | Mataura and Putataka series. | ||||
| TRIASSIC | Wairoa, Otapiri and Kaihiku series. | ||||
| PALAEOZOIC or PRIMARY | PERMIAN | Aorangi (unfossiliferous) series. | |||
| (?)CARBONIFEROUS | Maitai series (with Spirifer and Productus.) (?)Te Anau series (unfossiliferous). | ||||
| SILURIAN | Wangapeka series. | ||||
| ORDOVICIAN | Kakanui series (with Lower Ordovician graptolite facies). | ||||
| CAMBRIAN | Unfossiliferous. Metamorphic schists of the Maniototo series. |
Note 1.—Based for the most part, but with some slight modifications,
on Prof. J. Park’s classification in “Geology of New Zealand,” 1910.