IMPERIAL RELATIONS.

Grey River Argus, 14 January 1928, Page 6

IMPERIAL RELATIONS.

LIASON OFFICER FOR N. Z. LONDON, January 12. Discussions have been proceeding between Air. Coates and the Foreign Office with a view to the appointment Ly the latter of a Liason Officer, to take up duty in New eZahtnd. t.l is now announced that Mr. I*. B. B. Nicholas has been selected. This appointment is the first practical outcome of the Imperial Conference’s recommendation for closer inter-Empiro co-opcratiom The announcement here was delayed, because it was preferred that New Zealand should make it first, but the hands of Downing Street were forced by the unanticipated disclosure in London. The appointment is officially regarded as a precedent to most important developments in inter-imperial cooperation. It is pointed out that the duties are analagous to Air. Casey’s (Australia) with the difference that where as Mr. Casey’s expenditure is defrayed by the Commonwealth, that of Mr. Nicholas will be defrayed by Britain, notwithstanding the appointment was made at the request of Mr. Coates.

Both the Foreign and Dominions Offices point out that the position is not comparable with the contemplated appointment to Ottawa, which is a diplomatic post. Mr. Nicholas is 34, unmarried, and holder of the Military Cross. He has been associated with diplomatic work since 1920, and is at present second secretary at the Foreign Office. A geological find up Buller way the other day was the impress of a fern on a bovilder which two men broke in the bed of McKenna’s Creek, but at Arapuni there has been a remarkable exposure of the stumps of an ancient forest evidently destroyed by the last deposit of pumice from some volcano. No authority in geology has yet reported, but it is evident that the forest grow and flourished after the Waikato River left the course which is now the head-race, and ent the gorge over 200 ft deep in which it has now been dammed. Three geological periods have been cross-sectioned by the river in its New Year adventures on the Waiteti Flat. The earliest is shown by boulders and rocks that are well worn by water. Tn the second period this old bed filled and the water was diverted, and upon the new layer that is now clay a forest grew. It could not have started to grow less than 600 or 800 years ago, for among the many stumps of rima and matai there are some 4ft in diam etcr, indicating such an age. The tops of these stumps, some standing 18ft to 20ft above the rushing water mark, the level of the swamp water and their wonderful state of preservation is evidently due to this form of sealing. On seme the bark still firmly holds. Some punga stems have been noticed. The appearance of charcoal suggests that the forest was destroyed after the pumice layer was deposited, which marks the beginning of the third geological period.