Arthub. — On the Taieri River Floods. 97 



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 Eock and 

 Pillar, the basin of the Upper Taieri Eiver 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 rapidly 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 11^ 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 basua of the Taieri Eiver takes place on and around 

 the Lammerlaw Mountains ; that the Sutton, Deep Stream, Lee Stream, 

 and Waipori Eiver, carry off the first of this rainfall, while the Upper 

 Taieri Eiver 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 Styx 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. 

 7 



