Anniversary Address. J 
and whence he beheld the mighty rivers gliding by hidden channels, amid the 
rush and roar of many waters :— 
‘* Jamque domum mirans genetricis, et humida regna, 
Speluncisque lacus clausos, lucosque sonantes, 
Ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum, 
Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terr 
Spectabat diversa locis.” *— 
On the day succeeding that of our return to Tupuaeharuru, we visited 
Te Huka (i.e, “the foam,”) Waterfall, at the distance of about four miles 
from the north end of the Lake of Taupo. As Lieut. Meade remarks,t “ This 
cascade is grand in a style of its own, though not remarkable for great height 
or breadth.” Some 300 yards above the Fall, the Waikato is contracted into 
a narrow chasm with almost perpendicular walls, between which the whole 
body of the river dashes, in a cloud of snowy foam and with a deafening roar, 
over the rocky brink into the deep blue basin, with its whirling eddies, 
beneath. From the crevices of the precipitous cliffs around, numerous tree- 
ferns spread their feathery fronds ; here, too, the Toe-Toe grass} hangs its silken 
flags amid the violet-blooming Koromiko,§ and all the brightly chequered copse 
of New Zealand. The wave-worn terraces of the volcanic hills above bear, 
stamped on their slopes, the traces of the action of fire and water in remote 
ages. 
From Tupuaeharuru, it is a ride of twenty-five miles to Orakei-korako, a 
village of the Ngatiraukawas, strongly situated on a hill overhanging the 
rapids and cataracts of the Waikato, and nearly opposite the famous alum- 
caves on the right bank of that river. In the words of Mr. Meade || :—“ The 
whole of the hills and woods, visible from the crest where the kainga is built, 
are dotted with hundreds of steam-jets, whose wreaths and clouds of steam 
keep curling up from amidst the branches of the trees, giving a very singular 
character to a very beautiful landscape.” 
I regret that time and space will not allow me to give, on the present 
occasion, any further description of my journey overland from Taupo to 
Auckland. In the address of last year, I laid before the Institute some — 
account of my then recent visit, in company with the Duke of Edinburgh, to 
the wonders of Rotorua and Rotomahana. This year I have followed the 
long course of the Waikato—-that noble river, which is to the Maoris what 
the Rhine is to the Germans—almost from its source, near the foot of Tonga- 
riro in the centre, to the spot where it flows into the sea, on the West Coast 
of this Island. 
I would refer to the Parliamentary Papers, and to other official records, 
those who may desire information respecting the favourable effect on the 
* Virgil, Georgic iv., 363-367. + Chap. iii. t Arundo conspicua. . Forst. 
§ Veronica salicifolia. Forst. i |] Chap. iii. 
B 
