4o2 Transactions . — Geology . 



points to great future possibilities. It would supply an interest- 

 ing picture if one could show the condition of the country 

 generally when civilising man first entered on the scene. The 

 plain between Farndon and Pakipaki was covered with raupo. 

 flax, tea-tree, scrub, and bush, and was so ramified by overflow 

 and swamp channels as to make it impassable to man or beast. 



The lower country about Meeanee, and between it and Napier, 

 was an area of fairly deep water, and long after Europeans had 

 begun to settle in the district large 5-ton boats plied between 

 Napier and Pakowhai by way of Awatoto. At that time Pako- 

 whai was a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. In 

 those early days there were no roads, and the natives themselves 

 dwelt along the sea-beach, some at the mouth of the Maraetotara 

 Stream, near the Kidnappers, and others at Te Awapuni, the 

 present site of the Washout, and others at Maraetaha, in the 

 Inner Harbour, and others at the small island on the Tangoio 

 Beach, about eight miles or so from Napier. The Ngaruroro 

 River then ran along the plain from Roy's Hill, passing between 

 Hastings and Pakipaki, thence by way of Havelock it swept 

 round the low flats that skirt the shingle-deposits that form the 

 Tukituki in the vicinity of Te Mata, the river eventually reaching 

 Pakowhai. There it was joined by the Waitio and other creeks, 

 forming a deltoid area that can even now be traced across the 

 country in the direction of Meeanee and Te Awapuni. near the 

 Washout. The Ngaruroro changed its course at the time of the 

 great flood of 1867, a year before the establishment of Hastings 

 as a town. The present bed of the river is along the bed of the 

 old Waitio Stream. Since the alteration of its course, the rive] 

 has on several occasions broken through the right hank in the 

 vicinity of Roy's Hill, thereby threatening a return to its old 

 course. 



The Tutaekuri River has also played an important part in 

 recent times in modifying the surface features of the plain. 

 Formerly the river, which now enters the plain at Redcliffe. 

 '•hi ''led at the Moteo, and so formed the fan-like area between 

 Fernhill and Crissoge. The wearing-away of the limestones at 

 Puketapu altered the course of the Tutaekuri. hut even now in 

 time of heavy Hood the river overflows at the Moteo, and sends 

 great quantities of water and debris into the plain by way of 

 Omahu. In the great flood of 1897 the overflow waters from 

 this river joined with the overflow from the Ngaruroro near 

 Crissoge and the old flour-mill in the vicinity of Papakura, and. 

 running along the low-lying area at the foot of the Papakura 

 Hills, spread over the plain and formed one immense seadike 

 area in the direction of Meeanee. Pakowhai. Olive, and Te Awa- 

 puni. or what has since become known as the Washout. 



