592 Transactions. 
sea-level. Porirua and Wellington Harbours prove the depression of the 
southern end of the Island. According to Cotton, the depression on the 
eastern side of Wellington Harbour is about 200 ft. (104, p. 140). Palliser 
Bay, like Wellington Harbour, occupies part of a tectonie depression, and 
once extended some miles up the Wairarapa Valley, as is proved by the 
raised shell beaches that occur round the shores of the lake (11, p. 86). 
That.the land has been higher in this locality is suggested by the wide low- 
lying plains and the sprawling spurs that project into them. 
The streams flowing to the eastern coast of Wellington are all small. 
The Akitio and Wainui (34, p. 103), and probably others also, near the sea, 
flow slightly entrenched in raised estuarine deposits. Hill has shown that 
the extensive Heretaunga Plain is an old extension of Hawke Bay filled 
Tutaekuri 
Rivers (74, p. 288; 76, p. 431). The silts, sands, and gravels of the plain 
reach 369 ft. below sea-level at Havelock (84, p. 444). The lower valleys of 
the Wairoa, Waipaoa, Uawa, and Waiapu Rivers are all obviously infilled 
estuaries (52, p. 22). The loose deposits in the Waipaoa Valley at Makauri, 
on the flats four miles from the sea, extend to 200 ft. below sea-level 
(86, p. 434). 
In the Bay of Plenty the harbours of Ohiwa, Tauranga, and those on the 
eastern side of Hauraki Peninsula amply prove depression. At Tauranga, 
valleys cut in а 200-300 ft. bench have later been depressed and partly 
filled. The submerged forest at Opotiki (50ft.), and the swamps at Coro- 
mandel (150 ft.) (29, p. 12), and near Thames (30 ft.) (116, p. 244), probably 
elong to a late period of oscillation. ki Gulf, like Palliser Bay, is 
the drowned portion of a structural depression. The numerous peat-beds 
passed through by bores on the lowlands south of the inlet prove à 
depression of this portion of New Zealand of at least 400 ft. (117, p. 6). 
At Horotiu, in a tectonic trough adjacent to the Hauraki depression, 
peaty beds occur at a depth of 550 ft. below sea-level (96, p. 614 
From Wairau River to Motunau there is convincing evidence of uplift, 
but the only definite recorded evidence that the land was once lower than 
