Artuur.—On the Taiert River Floods. 
theory is correct. For instance, Mr. James Murison, who first took 
up country there as a runholder in 1857, has assured me that, while 
the southerly storms rage around the Lammerlaw and Rock and 
Pillar, the basin of the Upper Taieri River itself escapes these to a great 
extent. From the Kyeburn, all round the north and west side of the plain 
to the Totara, that is over an area of 280 square miles, or 180,000 acres, 
there is not a single stream but such as a man may easily jump across. 
The Kyeburn stream has a rapid descent, and in floods rises to a consider- 
able height, but falls quickly. This I saw during the big flood of 1868, 
when camped on its banks. The streams then round to the Totara dis- 
charge very little rainfall into the Taieri ; and the most received by Mount 
Ida flows into the Waitaki; while on the east side, round to Hyde, there is 
but a small quantity runs down the Sowburn and Pigburn.* But the Deep 
Stream and Lee Stream rise tapidly and carry off as swiftly a large amount 
of rainfall. After the flood of February, 1877, I examined parts of the 
gorge of the Lee Stream, where the flood marks were visible 40 feet above 
the ordinary water-level on a width of about two to three chains. This 
gorge has a descent of 900 feet in 113 miles, while that of the Deep Stream 
falls 825 feet in 20 miles, or thereby. Then it is well known the main body 
of the Taieri above the Styx comes away slowly—owing partly, no doubt, to 
the sponge-like and retentive nature of its catchment ground, and continues 
high long after the Kyeburn, Deep Stream, and Lee Stream have run off 
their flood waters. These latter streams are sudden and violent in their 
action, especially the Deep Stream, which should be checked ; but most 
danger appears to me to lie in the accumulation of rainfall at the sources of | 
the Taieri itself, after the ground there has become saturated and the river 
has risen to its full capacity. Here, then, the main reservoir should be. 
Stated shortly, the above remarks come to this,—That an excess above the 
average rainfall on the basin of the Taieri River takes place on and around 
the Lammerlaw Mountains; that the Sutton, Deep Stream, Lee Stream, 
and Waipori River, carry off the first of this rainfall, while the Upper 
Taieri River itself brings away the main flood comparatively slowly after- 
wards; and that on these streams the necessary sites for impounding reser- 
voirs must be looked for. 
Sites for Reservoirs, the Stya Dam. 
From a consideration of the above conditions, it seems to me that the 
drainage of the plain from the Kyeburn round to near the Styx may be dis- 
regarded, and that a reservoir at the Styx would catch nearly as much flood 
* I find from measurements recently made by Mr. D. Barron, that the average dis- 
charge at Hamilton Bridge exceeds that at Pateroa Ford by only 8,000,000 cubic feet 
daily, 
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