146 _ Transactions. 
streams which spread over the plain as the material was deposited during 
periods of flooding and growth. The process can be watched even now 
over the plain in times of flooding. The material found during the process 
limits of the volcanic country, where pumice and lava rocks are somewhat 
abundant, as is also the bluish-grey clay-sand found in the vicinity of 
solfatara and puia. It is manifest that this water must come from some- 
where outside the immediate vicinity of the water-bearing area, and thus 
the rainfall of the district is benefited to the extent of the amount mentioned 
in the early part of this paper. 
From 1871 to the end of 1920 the average rainfall for the Heretaunga 
Plain has been 34-266 in., the rainfall for each year being as under :— 
ANNUAL RAINFALL IN NAPIER AND VICINITY DURING THE PAST FirrY YEARS. 
Number : Number || Number 
Rainfall in cd f infall in 
Yon et Inches. Yrs. а gori ve Ms “inches. 
} 
1 | 1871 35-89 19 1889 | 35-76 36 1906 30-15 
2 1872 23-94 20 1 27-61 37 1907 65 
3 1873 42-38 21 1891 29-75 38 1908 32-11 
4 1874 94 22 1892 40 39 86 
5 1875 38-26 23 1893 57-73 1910 36-12 
6 1876 38-39 24 1894 40-10 41 1911 35-29 
7 1877 33-45 25 1895 34-07 42 1912 29-41 
8 1878 21-00 26 1896 43 1913 25-41 
9 1879 53-14 27 1897 41-38 1914 24 
LO 28 1898 30-79 45 1915 24-56 
pi 1881 24-14 29 1899 37-57 46 1916 36-84 
12 1882 37-01 30 45-36 47 1917 
3 | 1883 31 1900 | 27-77 48 1918 | 3227 
4 | 1884 39-76 32 36-48 49 1919 25-13 
15 | 1885 | 9342 | 33 | 190 | 3142 1920 | 28-52 
Eu nx ae 
26:94 : 
з f | od | M 35 1905 | 46-67 Average 34-266 
D the period there were two years when the annual rainfall 
twenty-one years when it exceeded 30 in. and was less than 40 in., eight 
years when it exceeded 25 in. and was less than 30 in., and ten years when 
the importance of rain-conservation, though after all it is the rain that 
supplies artesian beds with water, and were there no porous beds con- 
tinuous in origin between the back country and the sea there could be no 
artesian wells. The drainage of a district stops the amount of soakage that 
was formerly possible throughout the district. When this country was first 
settled the areas of swamp lands were extensive. Lakes and swamp lands 
_ illustrate places where the land is oversaturated with water— in other 
ords, where the supply of water exceeds evaporation and soakage. n 
Sinking in depressed areas where there are no traces of water the line oe 
