CHAP. XIX.] KAIPARA HARBOUR. 265 



standing all the disadvantages I have enumerated, 

 there would be no real danger to vessels under the 

 care of an experienced pilot in entering the har- 

 bour, if it were properly surveyed and the shoals 

 well buoyed off. Many large vessels, as the Na- 

 varino and the Anne Watson, have entered and 

 left it in safety. 



At present there exists only a sketch of the har- 

 bour from a running survey of my lamented friend 

 the late Captain William Symonds, which has the 

 credit of being the most accurate, although it has 

 been disfigured by a spurious lithograph in Sydney. 

 Kaipara seems to be a harbour particularly adapted 

 for steamers, as they can contend with the tide and 

 contrary winds. 



The harbour consists of several arms, which re- 

 ceive streams of fresh water; the westernmost of 

 these is the Wairoa. At the point where you 

 first fall in with this stream in coming from the 

 Bay of Islands, and 130 miles from the heads of the 

 harbour, its breadth and depth are those of the 

 Thames at Richmond. It is navigable for canoes 

 about eight miles above this place, where their far- 

 ther progress is prevented by rapids. The Wairoa 

 rises in the hills, on the northern slope of which 

 the Waima, an arm of the Hokianga, has its source. 

 The Wairoa is soon joined by the Otamatea, a river 

 coming from the hills in the neighbourhood of 

 Wangari harbour, and this receives in its turn the 

 Oropaoa from the northward, and the Kaiwaka 



