In the June issue of the Geological Magazine for 1917 there appears an article by Mr. C. T. Trechmann, D.Sc., F.G.S., on “The Glaciation Controversy in New Zealand”, in which he traverses my views as to the extent of the Pleistocene glaciation of this Dominion. I regret that my recent journeys to the Isle of Pines and Cape Yorke Peninsula and the irregularity of the oversea mails arising from the war conditions have prevented an earlier reply. Mr. Trechmann deals first with the glaciation of the North Island. He says it seems to him that the question of the glaciation of the North Island stands or falls with the origin of the striations on the large andesitic boulder lying near Mangaweka in the Rangitikei Valley (see Plate XIV). He selects these striations as the sole criterion of former glaciation, and argues that “if the scratches are not glacial the boulder is not glacial, and if this boulder is not glacial none of the others are glacial, and the chief evidence for a glaciation of the North Island fails”. As a matter of fact this great striated boulder was not discovered by me till 1915, or some five years after the close of the glaciation controversy between Dr. P. Marshall and myself. Its existence was unknown in 1909. At that time I relied on other evidences of glaciation that Mr. Trechmann passes over with little or no comment.
Biological memory of the first Pleistocene glaciation in New Zealand