80 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



As I believe that in some future time it will become the 

 Isle of Wight of New Zealand, owing to the salubrity of its- 

 climate, its very picturesque and excellent harbours, and its 

 hot springs, perhaps a short description of it may prove in- 

 teresting. 



Its length is about twenty-two miles in a north-and-south 

 direction, its greatest width about twelve miles, and its least 

 about two miles and a half, comprising in all an area of about 

 74,000 acres, 30,732 of which were acquired by the Barrier Com- 

 pany, 8,514 are still in the hands of the natives as reserves, 

 and of the balance of 39,754 acres about half is freehold and 

 half Crown land. 



The whole of the island is broken and rocky, the central 

 portion particularly so. The highest hill is Hirakimata, or 

 Mount Hobson, situate about the centre of the island, at an 

 elevation of 2,038ft. above the sea. A few hundred feet lower 

 down, and clustering round Mount Hobson, there are several 

 bold and picturesque peaks, some of which are composed of 

 uplifted palaeozoic slates, in some instances standing com- 

 pletely on end, and, covered as they are from their bases 

 nearly to their summits with dense forest, containing a large 

 proportion of excellent kauri, they form very striking objects 

 to the artistic eye. 



For a distance of about three miles north and south of 

 Mount Hobson the palaeozoic pink slates extend, forming a 

 zone six miles in breadth almost across the island in its widest 

 part, and broken up into many peaks and precipices. At the 

 eastern margin of this zone there i§ a fringe of breccia, yellow 

 sandstone, and blue slate ; and its western shore is fringed 

 almost entirely by " puddingstone," or breccia, forming be- 

 tween Whangaparapara Harbour and Port Fitzroy bold over- 

 hanging cliffs. 



The southern part of the island — that is, from Whanga- 

 parapara southwards — is chiefly volcanic formation, and^ 

 although very broken, is much less so than the central 

 portion. It was cut up by the Government some twenty 

 years ago into farm-sections ranging from 50 to 200 acres in 

 area. Several of these were taken up, but at present there 

 are only some twenty settlers with their families living on 

 them. The soil is good, and takes grass very readily. 



North of Blind Bay, and about two miles distant in a 

 northerly direction, there is an extinct crater named Ahumata 

 — probably from the large quantities of obsidian to be found 

 on it — the highest portion of which is 1,292ft. above the sea. 

 The eastern side forms a perpendicular cliff for some distance, 

 called the White Cliffs, which, when lit up by the morning 

 sun, appears of a dazzling white, the rock being, I believe, a 

 trachytic felstone. Professor Hutton, in his geological report 



