Anniversary Address. 9 



and whence lie 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 clauses, lucosque sonantes, 



Ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum, 



Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra, 



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 J 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 singidar 

 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, 1 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. fChap, iii. X Arundo conspicua. Forst. 



§ Veronica salicifoUa, Forst. 11 Chap. iii. 



