350 Transactions. — Geology. 



and, should the " Asylum" well be attempted as recommended, 

 it may be found advisable to go down at least 300ft., so as to 

 test this point. From the specimen of the water received it 

 appears to be admirably suited for domestic use, and with a 

 small outlay the people of Wanganui will now be supplied 

 with at least one inestimable blessing — viz., pure water. 



The diagram I exhibit (PL XLV.) shows in detail the cha- 

 racter of the beds, and the locality plan shows the situation of 

 the well, and the height of the several spots where sinkings are 

 proposed. 



Art. XLVIII. — Discovery of Artesian Water-supply, Eua- 

 taniwha Plain. 



By H. Hill, B.A., F.G.S. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 28th November, 



1892.] 



About five years ago, when portions of the Hawke's Bay Dis- 

 trict had been suffering from an unusual drought, the question 

 was asked whether there would be any probability of an 

 artesian water-basin on the Euataniwha Plain. This plain 

 flanks the lower slopes of the Euahine Eange on its eastern 

 side, and for the eastern boundary it has a limestone range 

 which is in reality a portion of the Puketoi Eange. The latter 

 range is of considerable interest, because in its turn it is 

 flanked to the eastward by the chalk-marls which are met 

 with in so many places between Te Aute and Waipawa. The 

 head of the Euataniwha Plain is at the Guavas, and it ex- 

 tends to the south-west for some distance beyond Takapau, 

 where a fan-like shingle-deposit from the Euahine separates 

 the plain from the valley of the Manawatu Eiver. The length 

 of the valley from north-east to north-west may be set down 

 at twenty miles, and the average width at eight miles. 



There is every appearance that at one time the Euataniwha 

 Plain was directly connected with the Heretaunga Plain, for the 

 beds in the vicinity of each are identical in their structure and 

 arrangement ; but at that time the Kidnappers and Te Mahia 

 Peninsula were joined together, and what is now Hawke's 

 Bay was covered with shingle and conglomerates and pumice 

 from the western watershed. A period of subsidence followed, 

 since which time the Heretaunga and Euataniwha Plains 

 have been formed, by the deposition of new gravel, sands, and 

 debris, from which material similar to the Kidnapper conglo- 

 merate and pumice beds had been washed, and which now 



