CHAP. XIX.] AMD TRIBUTARIES. 269 



scarcely any natives within a great distance of the 

 station. In consequence of this there has not been 

 here that success which in other parts of the island 

 has attended the efforts of the missionaries. 



The general aspect of the Kaipara and its tri- 

 butaries is far more open, and the quantity of excel- 

 lent agricultural land more extensive, than at the 

 Hokianga, and, from the abundance of its timber, 

 Kaipara is a place admirably adapted for ship-build- 

 ing establishments ; its advantages, therefore, as a 

 settlement, would seem to outweigh the inconveni- 

 ence resulting from the harbour being situated on 

 a lee- shore and of somewhat difficult access. 



There are many convenient places for a township 

 and for dockyard establishments on the banks of 

 the Wairoa. 



The hills in the upper part of that river consist 

 of the stiff whitish clay which characterises kauri- 

 land, here and there with a basis of a hard argil- 

 laceous slaty rock : lower down, on the left bank, 

 are steep hillocks of basalt, surmounting which are 

 the ruins of some ancient fortifications; on the 

 right shore, and towards the sea-coast, is a soft 

 ferruginous sandstone ; inside and round the north- 

 ern head the cliffs expose layers of lignite, gene- 

 rally four feet in thickness and superimposed to the 

 height of about twenty feet by a white slightly 

 consolidated sand, which softens by exposure to the 

 water, and on a near examination is found to consist 

 of decomposed pumicestone, of which large globular 

 boulders are still compact. The lignite consists of 



