Hill. — On an Artesian Water-sicpply. 569 



and cannot be less than 5,000ft. or 6,000ft. All the beds are 

 conformable, and dip at an angle of about 25° in a north-west 

 direction, and pass beneath Gisborne in the direction of 

 Ormond at a varying depth. The rocks which make up the 

 •series known as Young Nick's Head, along the south side of 

 the bay, have no corresponding characters with those described 

 &s dipping beneath the Poverty Bay plain. They are younger, 

 and are connected with the beds forming the hills on the 

 "Whautaupoko, although there is apparently a fault of some 

 extent, as the dip of the beds at the Murewai is south-south- 

 east, whilst those on the Whautaupoko is south-west. The 

 rocks exposed on the right bank of the Waipaoa Eiver, oppo- 

 site Ormond, belong to the Nick's Head series, and they dip 

 E. by N. towards the bay at a low angle. 



From the descriptive account here given it will be noticed 

 that, although there are numerous porous rocks in the district, 

 they are by no means generally distributed, nor do they form 

 a syncline and dip generally in the direction of the plain. 

 The limestones are not conformable with the clays, and unfor- 

 tunately they dip north by west, and their drainage is mainly 

 in that direction. The lower rocks in the vicinity of the plain 

 have been much tilted and broken, and, except in the case 

 of Kaiti and Ormond, underlying beds do not present any 

 prospect of a syncline such as is required for an efficient arte- 

 sian water-supply basin. As already explained, the rocks 

 forming the lower hills on the Whautaupoko are porous, being 

 made up of shingle, sands, lignite, and a coarse, fossiliferous, 

 marly sandstone, which seems to pass into an impure lime- 

 stone in the direction of the Ormond quarries. These beds 

 are to be found in isolated spots on the Patutahi side of the 

 district, and between them and over them the Waipaoa River 

 passes on its way to the sea. All these beds correspond with 

 what are known as the Kidnapper beds, in the Hawke's Bay 

 district, and from which the artesian waters of Napier and the 

 whole of the surrounding plain are drawn. In the latter 

 district, however, they are much more extensive, and they 

 form with the limestones a trough or syncline of large extent, 

 and which constitutes the artesian basin in the district. 



The plain extending from Gisborne in the direction of Patu- 

 tahi and Ormond is of very recent formation, and is made up 

 chiefly of the debris carried down to the sea by the Waipaoa 

 and the other streams which fall into the bay. There have 

 been some differentiated earth movements in the district, and 

 these, along with the deltoid deposits, have produced the 

 present plain and coast lagoons. When these changes began 

 the bay was a deep arm or inlet of the sea, and the Waimata 

 River ran through the Kaiti Valley, which at the time of high 

 water was washed by the sea. The areas have been slowly 



