Abstract:
There has been no previous detailed geological examination of this district. In 1951, Seagar, a Victoria College Honours Student, made plans to examine the section but did not proceed with this work. (Seagar very generously allowed the author to take over this section for his M.Sc. Thesis). The pioneer geologists, Crawford, A.McKay and W.A.McKay in the course of four rapid traverses in the Southern Wairarapa did no more than reach the Southern boundary of the present district. In 1877 A.McKay described sediments reaching to the north as far as Longbush, while in 1891 W.A.McKay travelled down the Kuamahanga Stream to a point due north of Smith, a prominent "taipo" that overlooks the confluence of the Kuamahanga Stream and the Wainuioru River. The revision of the New Zealand Tertiary stages by Finlay and Marwick (1940, 1947) following the detailed foraminiferal work of Dr.Finlay has completely invalidated the earlier attempts of A.McKay to assign ages to formations in the Southern Wairarapa.
