Srewart.—On the Reclamation of Sand Wastes. 43 
Perhaps the best idea of the evil which threatens this fair district may be 
had by a journey from Waiuku to Port Waikato. As the traveller advances 
in this direction, the land is seen to change from the heavy clay lands at 
Waiuku to lighter and more loamy soils. When the distance is about half 
traversed—and the road lies generally parallel to the coast—the advance-guard 
of the sand-drift is seen covering half of what was not long ago a field of rich 
pasture. Atthe southern boundary of the Maioro, a village site with a few 
houses and small farms is reached, and the advancing sand-hills and drift are 
only a few yards to the westward of them. Close brush fences have been erected 
with the view of protection, but that is only a most temporary remedy, and 
nothing hitherto done is of any avail. From this point the traveller strikes 
into the desert, and for about four miles, to the Waikato Ferry, traverses such 
a waste as few imagine can be witnessed in New Zealand. Nothing but sand 
is in sight, and, may be, the tops of trees long since buried. This desert 
stretches farthest inland just at the river, and does not extend south of it, 
if we except the flat between the bar and the southern cliffs, which has been 
formed. by an enormous landslip causing a change in the course of the river 
about three-quarters of a mile to the northward of where it formerly flowed. 
On this landslip the township of Port Waikato is now laid out. - 
A small portion of the coast between Waikato and Manukau Heads is 
still unbroken on the surface, and in many places the first eroding action of 
the wind is to be observed. The South Head is a striking example of this. 
Within the last few years many millions of tons of sand have been carried out 
into the channel of the southern passage of the bar. A remarkable feature on 
the coast is that of blind gullies, two of which are to be seen near the Manukau 
South Head. The principal one must drain at least 800 acres, half of it being 
heavy bush land, but its outlet is covered by a hill of sand 480 feet high, 
through which the water filters to the sea. 
The Kaipara sand-hills differ from the above described, inasmuch as that 
while in the latter case the sand is encroaching on a rolling tountry of nearly 
its own level, in the former the encroachment is tumbling inland over, for a 
great part, a country of much lower level, and will soon reach extensive plains 
but a few feet above high water. The advance is consequently very slow, but 
none the less sure, and, if not arrested, eventually the Kaipara river itself will 
be choked. 
In considering the possible remedy, one point has certainly been deter- 
mined, although only of a negative character. It is quite useless to begin 
inland. Neither fence nor trees can arrest the drift. When a brush or other 
close fence is erected in the sand it certainly seems to have immediate effect ; 
the force of wind is checked near to the surface, and sand ceases to be carried 
forward and deposited within a few yards of it, but soon a ridge is formed to 
