HiLL.— Water-conservation and Hawke's Bay Artesian Systems. 143 
above the other that the edge of each leaf is separate from the overlying 
edge of a leaf by, say, iin. or more, the difficulty of water poured along 
the edges of the leaves passing very slowly underneath each leaf disappears. 
As soon as the leaves are wetted the passage of water is very slow, an 
a long time will ensue for water to pass the full length of each leaf with the 
varying pressures and the air difficulties to be overcome. 
But this is what occurs in beds of rock of different materials. Water 
may pass across the edges of a score of beds of strata on its way from 
system of rocks. 
As for Poukawa Lake being the source of supply for the artesian waters 
of the Heretaunga Plain, it may be of interest to explain the relationship 
existing between the lake and the plain. Hawke's Bay, extending from 
Portland Island on the north to Cape Kidnappers towards the south, is a 
part of a land area that was destroyed in part and was otherwise fractured 
at a period of great voleanie and earthquake activity at the close of the 
Pliocene and opening of the Pleistocene periods of geological history. The 
i with the Hatuma Lake, and the line of 
fracture through Otane and Opapa with the series of lakes formed, acco 
ing to Maori tradition, by Tara and his dogs, represent the result of the 
y at that time. Since then the earth- 
building has gone on apace. Only Hat 
much larger lake, and the valley between the ranges of hills extending from 
Waipawa to Napier has been mostly filled by the washing from the rivers 
and hills that have taken place. The creek from Poukawa into the plain 
time a much larger communication, and there 
ri 
before they enter the limits of the plain, and these sources of supply slowly 
| i i gular quantity of artesian water, 
sufficient, apparently, to meet the full requirements of the district, and 
] rainfall of Т in. over the 
equivalent, according to my estimate, to an annua 
entire area of 80,000 acres. 
Geologically the Heretaunga Plain is connected with the valley extending 
from Pakipaki through Opapa, Otane, and Hatuma on to the Ruataniwha 
Plain, and the following information of wells has been supplied to me by 
the parties directly concerned. 
Otane.— Towards the end of the year 1914 Mr. Leipst was engaged in 
putting down a number of wells for Mr. R. H. Tod of Brae Mead Farm, 
ow, the deepest being 71 ft., and 
the others varying from 65 ft. to 40 ft., the latter being the shallowest put 
down. The flow varies somewhat in amount, the greatest being at the 
