14 TUTIRA 



lakes precludes the possibility of river action. Scour sufficiently violent 

 to have scooped out the lake basins must have worn to an equal depth 

 these barriers of solid marl. Their surfaces, now submerged, must more- 

 over have been subject, during a comparatively recent geological period, 

 to superterranean influences such as now obtain elsewhere on the run. 

 They bear evidence, too, that the drainage system ran then as it 

 continues to run. They are mere relics, in fact, of former shelves and 

 terraces, whose material has been worn away when levels were other 

 than they are now. Previous to subsidence they had been sculptured 

 by processes similar to those which have created spurs of kindred shape 

 on the ranges of the west, centre, and east. What, moreover, is true 

 locally of these comparatively small water areas is true of the whole 

 terrain included in the great dip which runs throughout and beyond the 

 length of the Hawke's Bay province. If, indeed, there has been a river 

 flowing at any time north or south along the trough of the run, no signs 

 now remain. It is safe to affirm that since Tutira assumed approxi- 

 mately its modern form the drainage system has been west and east, 

 never north and south. 



If, then, the creation of the lake basins is due neither to scour 

 nor to blockage by earthfall of waters once freely escaping, a single 

 possibility remains. Their presence, I believe, is due to subsidence 

 of the crust of the earth a movement sympathetic with that of 

 the great outside subsidence of what is at present the bay of the 

 province. 



Although too much stress need not be placed on local phenomena, 

 it is nevertheless certain that many small facts countenance the 

 belief that Tutira is situated on a line of seismic partiality. During 

 the 'eighties, when the famous Pink and White Terraces were 

 destroyed by the eruption of Tarawera, the waters of Orakai be- 

 came a dull brownish - green colour, and for many weeks continu- 

 ously gave forth a strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen ; it has 

 done so on several occasions for shorter periods since that date. The 

 reek of sulphur is distinct, too, in many parts of the gorge of the 

 Waikari. In the Waterfall paddock there is a spring of sulphur water ; 

 there is a tepid runnel in the bed of one of the Waikoau tributaries. 

 Earth tremors are frequent, though perhaps not more so than else- 

 where in the district. The eastward fall, moreover, of the Newton 

 range seems to be rather less pronounced than elsewhere, as if its 



