49 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 
overflow which wells up so grandly ; and many underground rivulets, following 
ancient valleys in the tertiary clays, must be convergent to form those noble 
springs. And the farther inland at which water is sought, the smaller and 
further apart will be those rivulets, until, on reaching the summit of the. 
watershed at Mount Eden, the minimum will be attained ; and, although at 
that elevation a basin may be found containing many million cubic feet of 
water, it would only be a work of time to exhaust it if the all-important points 
of rainfall and gathering ground are inadequate to keeping up the supply. 
Авт. VIIL—-O» the Reclamation of Sand Wastes on the Coast, and the 
Prevention of their Inland Advance. By JAMES Stewart, С.Е. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th September, 1873.] | 
THE existence of a very serious evil will be recalled to mind by perusal of a 
carefully-considered paper on the above subject, by Mr. С. D. Whitcombe, as 
given in the last volume of the ** Transactions,"* especially by those who have 
had occasion to notice the increasing and apparently resistless advance of sand 
inland from a great length of our coast line. In places this is covering the 
fairest and most fertile soils, burying forests, and driving before its dread 
advance all the efforts hitherto made by a few individuals more immediately 
concerned to ward off or retard its progress. The subject claims public 
attention, as not only has a very large tract of country been lost to settlement 
already, and many fertile farms are now being threatened with annihilation, 
but, as is shown in the paper referred to, and well remarked during the 
diseussion on it, the existence of streams, the navigation of rivers, and safety 
of lighthouses, and such like, are concerned in the adoption and success of 
preventive measures. This attention, if it is to be at all, cannot be awakened 
too soon. 
The features presented by this encroachment vary on different coasts, but 
it will suffice to describe those nearest to Auckland. Those are, the coast 
from Waikato to Manukau Heads, and from Waitakerei to Kaipara Heads. 
The former is, where uncovered by driving sand, of а very fertile nature in 
general It is a rich sandy loam—in some places an excellent black soil— 
throwing up a good pasture, and carrying a stock of, in some cases, the 
heaviest cattle which come into the Auckland markets. The land is very 
easily brought into cultivation, and is about all taken up, and much of it 
settled on. 
* Trans. N.Z. Inst, Vol V., p. 108. 
