(F) Palmula bensoni. This is very rare, and at present no other limited species is known, the chief distinction of the stage being the absence of important forms of underlying and overlying horizons (e.g., Pseudogaudryina proreussi, Gümbelina ototara, Zeauvigerina, Bolivina anastomosa, Bulimina bortonica, Nonion of pompilioides line, Nuttallides, Cibicides pseudoconvexus). First appearance of:— (M) Callolima Bartsch, *Tanea Marw., *Spelaenacca Fin., *Eulima Risso, *Coluzea Fin., *Proximitra Fin., *Parvimitra Fin., *Conospirus de Greg., *Parasyrinx Fin. (B) *Aetheia gualteri (Morris). (F) *Pseudogaudryna reussi (Stache), *Arenodosaria robusta (Stache), Plectofrondicularia whaingaroica (Stache) striate form, *Bulimina pupula Stache, Eponides umbonatus (Reuss). Last appearance of:— (M) *Carinacca Marw. (F) *Palmula bivium, *Globorotalia cf. dehiscens C., P., and C. Kaiatan. Type Locality:—Kaiata district, Greymouth Subdivision, North Westland (Finlay, 1939A, p. 531; Allan, 1933, p. 91). Sediments:—Mudstone, 2000–3000 ft. thick, outcropping over many square miles in Westland, resting apparently conformably on the Island Sandstone of Bortonian age (see Henderson, 1929, p. 284). The Tahuian has not been recognised there, and seems absent, the lowest Kaiata Mudstone being apparently still Ototaran in the wide sense. The Kaiatan is overlain conformably by the upper Point Elizabeth beds, of Whaingaroan age. Fauna:—Molluscs extremely rare (a small *Spirocolpus is the only one of note); forams everywhere abundant. Correlatives:—(By forams) the Lower Ototaran of Oamaru district (limestone with brachiopods, diatoms, sponge spienles locally abundant), basal tuffaceous part of same, and tuffs of Lorne (type of Waiarekan zone, with distinctive molluses), covering many square miles in North Otago; Omotumotu beds and lower Point Elizabeth beds in the type area. In North Island known only in Elsthorp district of Hawke's Bay, but probably fragments elsewhere. The molluscan fauna is taken almost entirely from the Waiarekan zone (see Marwick, 1926A, p. 307), all other facies of the Lower Ototaran being poor in macro-fossils. The micro-faunas plainly indicate a definite two-fold division of the Ototaran, with a few possible zones of lesser importance. The molluses have not shown this before simly because they are generally so rare and poorly preserved in this period. The three or four-fold division on brachiopod faunules suggested by Thomson (1926A, p. 152) and Allan (1933, p. 92) is not confirmed by the Foraminifera, and is in any case impracticable outside the Oamaru coastal area, for the assemblages occur hardly anywhere else separately and nowhere else in sequence. They cannot, for example, be applied to