Seventh Meeting. 4th November, 1876.
Dr. Buller, C.M.G., President, in the chair.
New Member.—W. R. E. Brown.
1. "On the Reptilian Beds of New Zealand," by A. McKay. (Transactions, p. 581.)
The President said that, in the paper just read, Mr. McKay had given proof that he was not merely an industrious collector but a competent geologist and palæontologist. The subject was most interesting. To Dr. Hector belonged the credit of having worked out and classified these Saurian remains.
Dr. Hector said he had listened to the paper with great interest, as it gave the author's own views gathered from the study of this important section. The Amuri section was valuable, as it was one of the few places in New Zealand where the equivalent beds to our coal-fields are fossiliferous. They might be of slightly different relative ages, but the whole belonged to the cretaceous formation, the bituminous coals of the West Coast being the same as, or even slightly younger than, the brown coals of the West. The lower part of the Amuri section was of the age of the lower greensand, the middle part of the upper greensand, while the upper chalk marls, limestones, and grey marls, were the equivalents of the chalk and lower eocene. He exhibited and described several characteristic fossils, particularly teeth, two chimæroid fishes from the lower part of the section, and bones of the great Fossil Penguin (Palæeudyptes antarcticus, Huxley), also bones from the upper marl. He agreed to the view that the whole Amuri series had been involved in the last movements, the formation being represented by fragments of synclines in lines striking right through the country, irrespective of the geographical features, and not corresponding to the existing valley systems.
Mr. John Young said he would like to know whether he had understood the author aright, that the Saurian remains were confined to the tertiary strata.
Mr. McKay, in reply, said he had only stated that some of the fossils found in the higher beds of the series containing Saurians were also to be had in tertiary beds, but that no Saurians of the genera and species common to the beds described had ever been found in the true tertiary rocks of New Zealand, between which and the cretaceo-tertiary formation a break in the sequence occurred.
2. "On the Draining of Towns," by W. D. Campbell, Assoc. Inst. C.E., F.G.S. (Transactions, p. 29.)
Before any discussion took place, the President read extracts from an account of a new method, invented by Mr. J. Dyer, for removing house sewage.
Mr. W. T. L. Travers alluded in terms of praise to an excellent plan of disconnecting house drains, exhibited by the author, and remarked that the defect of all drainage from houses was the connection between the receptacle and the house. No connection should be permitted, and then no gases would arise. The great drawback to the pail system was that the work would not be fairly performed by the contractors, who might neglect the houses on the hills for the more profitable work on the flats. He believed in the earth-closets when a sufficient quantity of deodorizing earth was used.
Mr. J. H. Wallace considered that the most important matter was to get rid of the dirty water lying in the streets. We wanted a system of drainage that would wash away the filth in the town. There would be plenty of flushing power. The difficulty would be to get rid of the accumulation at the end of the pipes without damaging the harbour.
