351 



grit. The Taipo lias a singular family resemblance to that at Tinui, and also 

 dips to the westward. 



From Telford's station the calcareous grits continue for aboiit a mile, when 

 the tertiaiy sandstone and limestone rocks again appeared, and continue all the 

 way to Collins' bush, resting on the blue clay. 



In this journey I settled the character of a large block of country, viz., — 

 the whole of the island within this Province lying to the N.E. of the Waira- 

 rapa, and between the Tararua and the East Coast. It will of course be 

 desirable to complete a traverse which I propose to make, from the gorge of 

 the Manawatu to the Akitio river and the East Coast, but as I have been 

 through tbe gorge of the Manawatu, and as I have also been on the Rua 

 Taniwha plains, and at Porongahau, I may very safely venture to predict that 

 in the above named traverse, we shall find nothing but the above described 

 tertiary rocks, with the underlying sandstones and limestones. 



I should state that at a distance of about ten miles from the east coast 

 an older series of rocks crop out, and extend to the sea ; they are composed of 

 sandstones and limestones. They are often inclined at a high angle, and are 

 doubtless of Mesozoic age. 



The streams which flow from the limestone ranges towards the Ruama- 

 hunga, deposit travertin in considerable quantities. I observed this particularly 

 at Te Pura Pura and Hautotara. At the former place I found many beautiful 

 impressions of ferns, possibly encrusted only a short time before. 



A raised beach may be observed all round the coast except at the foot of 

 the Wairarapa valley, where the sea encroaches on the soft rocks. 



Igneous rocks are found in situ in the district. At Waikekino, near 

 Flat Point, I found reefs of diallage on the beach, traversing Mesozoic lime- 

 stone. In the valley of the Upoko Ngaruru, a tributary of the Pahaou, I 

 found fragments of a similar rock, not actually in situ, but in a position where 

 I think they must have come from a rock in the immediate vicinity. 



At Cape Palliser the old rocks appear, and rising to a height of several 

 thousand feet, are lost beneath the tertiaries at about the line of the Pahaou 

 river, with the exception of some small ridges which are found further north — 

 as between Huangaroa and Hildebrand's. 



3. The Whanganui, Rangitikei, and Manawatu Rivers, including a 



Journey to Taupo. 



Having been requested by the Superintendent to examine the rocks of the 

 Whanganui river, and particularly the coal seams of the Tangarakau, a tribu- 

 tary of that stream, and having procured the services of Mr. Samuel Deighton, 

 as Interpreter, and an efficient crew of Maoris, under the command of Topia 

 Turoa, an influential chief, and son of Pehi, the great chief of the Middle 

 Whanganui, I proceeded up the Whanganui in the end of the year 1861, 

 accompanied also by Dr. Tuke and Mr. Walter Jowett. 



In consequence of detention by bad weather and holidays, we did not 

 reach Utapu, the residence of the owners of Tangarakau, until six days after- 

 wards. A runanga was then held to deliberate as to whether we should be 

 allowed to proceed to the coal seams or not, and the result arrived at was that 

 we could not be permitted to ascend the Tangarakau. 



As the Taranaki war had only finished a short time previously, not by 

 victoiy on either side but simply by sessation of hostilities, and as many of 

 the Whanganui natives had been engaged in the fight, it was perhaps not to 

 be wondered at that there was some jealousy of the pakeha in the interior. 



It was proposed to us that we might proceed as far as the mouth of the 

 Tangarakau, returning on the same day, but as afterwards a demand was made 



