E. Donsox.—State of Applied Science in Canterbury. 133 
of proper wharfage in Lyttelton Harbour. It is to be hoped that this 
urgent want may shortly be supplied by the works now in progress. 
Roaps.— The level character of the Canterbury Plains, and the abundance 
of gravel suitable for road metal, has made the construction of the main 
roads through the eastern portion of the province a very easy task, respect- 
ing which there is little to record of scientific interest. Some few exceptions 
may be here noticed. 
Thus, in the construction of the Sumner Road, between Christchurch 
and Lyttelton, the original gradient of the ascent to Evans Pass from Sum- 
ner Valley was altered to correspond with the slope of the lava streams 
of which the mountain is formed, by which means full advantage could be 
taken of the natural terraces formed by the projecting edges of these streams, 
whilst the road was made wider and straighter than it would have been as 
first laid out, and the amount of rock blasting was reduced to a minimum. 
lt may be interesting to glance at the nature of the channels through 
which the great rivers of the Canterbury Plains find their way from the hills 
to the sea, as they all possess, to a greater or less extent, the same features, 
which govern the selection of points of crossing, and, as a consequence, 
the direction of the main lines of road running parallel to the eastern sea- 
board. 
The general section of the Canterbury Plains, taken in a direct line 
from the sea to the hills, may be described as a curved line, differing but 
little from a dead level near the coast, but rising at a gradually increasing 
gradient until it reaches the foot of the hills, which, in most places, rise 
abruptly from the plains. On the other hand, the river beds themselves 
rise from the sea to the mountain gorges at a tolerably regular slope of 
from twenty to thirty feet per mile, running from the gorges between 
terraces of great height, which gradually diminish until they die away 
altogether, leaving the rivers to run on the surface of the plains for a short 
space, after which they again sink below the level of the country, and run 
to the sea between high cliffs of shingle, whose height varies with that to 
which the edge of the plains rises above the sea beach. 
Thus, with few exceptions, every one of these rivers presents a point at 
which it may be crossed on the general level of the country: below which 
it is either inaccessible on account of the cliffs by which it is bounded, or 
difficult to cross on account of the number and depth of the channels into 
which it spreads on the surface of the plains, and above which it can only 
be approached by long sidling descents cut in the terraces. 
Between Christchurch and the Waitaki, a distance of 143 miles, the 
position of the southern lines, both of road and railway, has been determined 
by considerations of this nature, and with the following result, viz., that 
