596 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



coffee-coloured lagoon called Kotohokahoka. Thence it issues 

 by an underground passage of a few chains in length, forming 

 a stream called the Pekapekarau. This, after a course of 

 about four miles in a wild ravine, is named the Takapuhurihuri, 

 on which the falls and rapids common to all these streams are 

 situated. Being joined by the Paihau the stream becomes 

 the Oraka, which successively receives the Mangakotaha and 

 the Mangatapu, retaining its name, and joining the Waihou 

 below Okoroire. The streams mentioned all run in very deep 

 ravines, and in each and collectively some of the wildest 

 scenery out of the alpine ranges may be seen. The streams 

 are never-failing, and abundant in volume. There is one 

 corresponding locality in all of them, where they form, in 

 almost all cases, clear falls of about 50ft., and a long 

 descent in rapids among the boulders below. A little to the 

 south of the rise of the Thames above described the water- 

 shed between the Thames and Waikato systems is first 

 formed, and the head of the Mokaihaha may be seen. The 

 falls of this stream are probably the largest in the whole 

 series, and can be heard a long way off in the dense forest, 

 wherein sound does not usually travel far. It is remarkable 

 that, although the Mangatapu and Wairakau drain apparently 

 into the Oraka, they contribute very little w^ater, although 

 they are among the largest ravines in every respect in the 

 whole range. There are evidently rents and chasms, which 

 lead the rainfall of probably thirty or forty square miles of 

 forest into the Waihou. On the eastern side of the valley the 

 three great dens of the Waimakariri furrow the flanks of the 

 range, much as the Oraka does on the south-west. Between 

 these immense gullies are elevated flat lands, sometimes a' 

 mile or more wide. And there also the open country dove- 

 tails into the forest. The flats and ridges push the fern far up 

 the flanks of the range, and the forest holds its own in the 

 ravines to a distance of two or three miles from the border-line 

 of the solid bush. Then there are any number of dry aicaawas 

 at a high level above all streams, marking the course of former 

 watercourses, but bearing now no traces of running water. 

 These, with the uplands, are all excellent soil, and only want 

 some arrangement for a small but constant supply of water to 

 become the most enjoyable of medium-sized holdings ; while 

 for the smallest class of farms, of from 50 to 100 acres, the 

 forest plateau and sloping flanks offer advantages which, all 

 things considered, are now hard to be equalled in the Auck- 

 land District. The formation is pretty much alike on both 

 sides of the range, but the scale is less on the eastern, as 

 might be expected from the less rise from Eotorua basin than 

 from the Thames Valley — about 900ft. in one case, and 1,500ft. 

 in the other. 



