I. Introduction. New Zealand occupies the most isolated and, so far as the-palaeontology is concerned, one of the lesser-known links in the great chain of folded marine Triassic sedimentary rocks which surrounds the Pacific Ocean. The presence of Triassic rocks of the Alpine type in New Zealand was first made known as a result of the visit of the Austrian frigate ‘Novara’ in 1858 & 1859 and the researches of F. von Hochstetter. Four species of Triassic fossils found on that occasion were described and figured by Zittel in 1864. 1 These were Monotis salinaria var. richmondiana Zittel, Spirigera wreyi Suess, Mytilus problematicus Zittel, and Halobia lommeli Wissmann. The Nelson province was the only district where Hochstetter obtained Trias fossils. He collected several Jurassic forms at Kawhia Harbour on the western coast of the North Island, but the Triassic deposits south of the harbour were discovered at a later date. Since Hochstetter's visit the detailed geological survey of New Zealand has revealed the wide extension of the Triassic rocks, and their stratigraphical and tectonic features have in many areas been more or less satisfactorily worked out. Sir James Hector 1 published from time to time lists of the fossils which the officers of the Survey had collected. His lists were not accompanied by figures or descriptions, and those from the beds with which the present paper deals were mostly names of well-known European Permian and Triassic forms. He paid, however, a closer attention to belemnites and brachiopods, and established three