438 Transactions. 



condensed, and falls in the form of rain on the upper parts of the elevated 

 ground. After passing along for a few miles the moisture is, as it were, 

 strained out of the air, so that the same aerial current that brings rain to 

 Hokitika, for instance, becomes a dry wind by the time it reaches Christ- 

 church. 



(2.) Winds. 

 But though the removal of the forest may not result in the diminution 

 of the rainfall, it may nevertheless have some very marked effects on the 

 climate. One of the principal of these is the increasing strength and 

 dryness of the winds that blow during the summer months, and which 

 have become more and more injurious to vegetation. The cause is not 

 far to seek, and its operation may be observed in any part of the bush 

 district to the north of Auckland, and especially in the high rugged 

 country which was once the home of the kauri. A few years ago, with 

 the exception of some comparatively insignificant areas, this extensive 

 district was covered with forest from shore to shoi'e. The warm winds, 

 charged with moisture from the ocean, passed gently over the country 

 without injury to the most delicate plant — in fact, they were just what the 

 iiative vegetation required for its full nourishment and growth. But 

 with the destruction of the forest there came a change which is being in- 

 tensified every day. The removal of the kauri, and the settlers' clearings, 

 made way for the forest-fires ; and as these did not confine themselves to 

 the portions artificially cleared, but worked their way into the standing 

 bush, in a comparatively short time the greater portion of the country, 

 especially along the backs of the high ranges, became denuded. Unless 

 this bared land is immediately brought under cultivation, which is only 

 done in the more fertile spots, it soon becomes covered with a clothing of 

 fern and tea-tree scrub ; and this in its turn is overrun by fire every dry 

 season, each fire consuming some of the humus in the soil, and gradually 

 reducing the land to barrenness, until at last the scrub becomes so light 

 that it affords no protection to the ground from the sun's rays. The con- 

 sequence is that on every clear day from December to March the air is so 

 superheated by the radiation from the baked soil that it rises in a column 

 to the heavens, and a current is established to draw in a fresh supply from 

 the lower levels. Every gully becomes a funnel up which the wind rushes 

 in a tearing blast, becoming more and more desiccated as it travels ; 

 orchards are blighted, grass is parched up, and crops are prematurely 

 ripened ; while the remnant of the bush becomes so dried up that it 

 is ready to be swept by the first fire that comes along. Old settlers will 

 tell you that the seasons have changed of late years, and they fondly hope 

 that after a certain cycle has rim its course the old state of things will 

 ■return ; but this will never happen until, by judicious planting and 

 cultivation, something like the old conditions have been re-established. 



But the effect of the wind is not only felt on the high lands. The 

 draught commences at the coast, and is drawn up the estuaries and the 

 long winding valleys that are a feature of the topography of many parts 

 of both the North and the South Islands. On the Hokianga River, which 

 has a navigable course of over twenty-five miles for large vessels, and tra- 

 verses an extensive settled district, it is noticed that the summer winds 

 are much more violent than they were when the place was first occupied. 

 Orchards and vineyards require more protection ; while along the banks 

 the native bush has a parched and storm-swept appearance that it never 

 ;had in former times. 



