674 Transactions. — Geologij. 



valuable help he has rendered me in this matter. The sum- 

 marised results will be found at the end of this paper, and I 

 am satisfied that in years to come they will be found of great 

 public and scientific value. As far as I am aware, they consti- 

 tute the only reliable data dealing with surface-denudation as 

 the result of excessive rainfall, and they provide likewise un- 

 mistakable evidence that denudation as estimated by the 

 material held in suspension and carried by certain rivers is 

 by no means a true index of the time which has gone by since 

 rock-materials began to differentiate as sedimentary deposits. 



For the purpose of easy reference the results are classed 

 under three heads : 1st, occupiers in the Counties of Pa- 

 tangata and Waipawa ; 2nd, occupiers in Hawke's Bay ; 3rd, 

 occupiers in Wairoa and Cook cum Waiapu. 



As already pointed out, the total area of the district is 

 about five and three-quarter millions of acres, but this in- 

 cludes mountain-tops, forest-lands, and large areas still in 

 the possession of the natives and from which no returns are 

 available. Answers have been received from owners repre- 

 senting 1,158,237 acres, and from these sufficient information 

 is available to show the extent of the denudation in a number 

 of important river-basins. In some cases the owners omit to 

 give an estimate of the area of slips on their lands, although 

 they point out their frequency and the alterations they have 

 caused by filling up creeks and modifying waterways. Thus, 

 the Hon. J. D. Ormond writes, " Slips everywhere ; the banks 

 of creeks especially have slipped badly, but it is hard to es- 

 timate the acreage." Mr. Eechab Harding, of Mount Vernon, 

 says, " Some of the hills appear to have been filled with 

 water like sponge, whilst their bases have been enlarged and 

 their heights lowered." Sir George Whitmore says of his 

 property at Tuparoa, County Waiapu, " Cannot furnish a 

 reliable estimate. At one spot the coast for quite half a mile 

 has moved towards the sea." Mr. Arthur Harding, of the 

 Kereru, writes that he has resided in his present district for 

 sixteen years, and has never known anything approaching the 

 extent of destruction. " It is impossible," he continues, " to 

 estimate the damage done, but I have never seen one-quarter 

 of the slips during the whole time I have resided in the dis- 

 trict." Mr. Moore, of Waimarama, south of Cape Kidnappers, 

 says in a note, "It is impossible to say the extent of the 

 slips in this district, as the whole coast for fifteen miles on 

 this run appears to be on the move. In some instances hun- 

 dreds of thousands of tons have come down, blocking the 

 beach up, but the sea washes the clay away very quickly. 

 These large slips came down in December, 1893, when the 

 creeks were higher than has ever been known by the oldest 

 Maoris." 



In answer to question No. 5, " Do you remember any 



