43-i Transactions. — Geology. 



Harbour Board. This special swamp-area supplies an excellent 

 example as to the amount of material that the rivers bring clown 

 in times of flood. It has been explained that formerly 5-ton 

 boats plied between Napier and Pakowhai, and the whole of the 

 swamp-area consisted of little else than fairly deep water. As 

 floods took place, heavy deposits of silt, &c, were left in various 

 places, and at times the land was raised many feet in height. 

 Thus the area now under notice has been raised so rapidly that 

 a svndicate a few years ago undertook the heavy responsibilit v 

 of reclaiming the swamp and raising 300 acres of it a foot above 

 the flood-level of 1897 within Ave years, whilst the remaining 

 acres were to be improved and made capable of cultivation. 

 In other words, the land was to be so improved under ordinary 

 conditions as to be capable of occupation. The work that has 

 been carried out since the arrangement was made supplies matter 

 of much interest and of public value, and gives a clue as to the 

 time that it would likely take to build up a plain such as the 

 Heretaunga Plain presents to-day, assuming that the physical 

 conditions in this Island have undergone no material modification. 

 Even a cursory inspection of the Heretaunga Plain is suf- 

 ficient to show an ordinary observer that the plain is bounded 

 by hills which appear to be continuous with the sea-cliffs that 

 bound the northern portion of Hawke's Bay in the direction of 

 Petane and Wairoa, and that continue round the Inner Harbour 

 to the Quarantine Island, the land just emerging above sea-level 

 between the latter island and the Taradale Road, where a branch 

 road running to Wharerangi has dammed back the sea in recent 

 years: but the brackish creeks that reach the has;' of the lulls 

 towards Halliwell's and the vineyards at Taradale bear testimony 

 to the fact of sea-action in times past, and that in the same way 

 the sea-waters had swept the foot of the Taradale and Hedcliffe 

 Hills, and thence by way of Papakura had swept the whole of the 

 area of what is at present known as the Heretaunga Plain, even 

 running far into the channels to the westward of Pakipaki and 

 the north-west of Maraekakaho. At the time small bays were 

 formed, and there existed the islands of Fernhill and Roy's Hill, 

 just as there exist Scinde Island, the Watchman, and others in 

 the Inner Harbour. If we follow the line of hills that reach the 

 plain between Maraekakaho and Pakipaki. and thence to Pukalui. 

 Havelock, and the Kidnappers, and imagine tor the moment that 

 the plain has disappeared, it will at once become apparent that 

 what are now low-lying hills on the north and west of the Here- 

 taunga Plain were at one time cliffs presenting a face to the 

 ocean as bold and as rugged as the Kidnappers do to-day. But 

 the cliffs and the lulls themselves will even now help us to de- 

 termine the question that we have to decide, as to the geological 



