﻿Field. — On the N.W. District of Wellington Province. 129 



that several parties of prospectors went to and from Kaimanawa by the known 

 native routes, but that a party, under Messrs. James Hogg and G. F. 

 Swainson, after going to Taupo vid Rangitikei, succeeded in returning to the 

 coast by way of the Turakina Valley, wljile Captain Pilmer and myself 

 succeeded in reaching the portion of the plains lying to the south of Uuapehu, 

 by following the valleys of the Mangawhero and Upper Wangaehu. Since 

 then the survey of a large block of land, inland of the Turakina and 

 Rangitikei districts, for the Native Lands Court, has added greatly to our 

 knowledge of that locality, while the exploi-ations of Mr. Booth and myself, in 

 course of cutting the lines for pack-roads directly from the town of Wanganui, 

 and from E,anana, on the Wanganui River, have given us a knowledge of the 

 western portion of the region in question, sufficient to enable it now to be 

 mapped and described with approximate accuracy. As I have spent the 

 greatest amount of time in exploring the locality, and have been frequently in 

 communication with the other explorers, and thus had an opportunity of 

 learning what they had ascertained, either personally or from natives, and of 

 comparing it with my own observations, or with the information I could get 

 from Maoris, I am perhaps the best able to give a general description of the 

 region, and therefore venture on the task. 



The volcanic country, of which Ruapehu, Tongariro, ISTgauruhoe, and 

 Hauhangatahi, are the main summits, appears to form a sort of culminating 

 point in the centre of the island, from which the di'ainage flows in all direc- 

 tions. The Wanganui, Mangawhero, Wangaehu, Turakina, Rangitikei, and 

 Waikato, all have their sources here, as have also numerous streams which 

 flow into them. Of the V/aikato it is needless to say more than that it rises 

 on the north-eastern slope of Ruapeliu, and soon passes out of this province on 

 its way northward to Taupo Lake. The Wanganui rises on the western side 

 of Tongariro, and after flowing for more than thirty miles in a north-westerly 

 direction (in which it passes to the north-east of Hauhangatahi), it bends and 

 flows southwards to the sea. The country through which it passes to the bend 

 seems to be excessively broken, but there appears to be strong reason to believe 

 it auriferous. All who have visited the country lying south-east of Taupo 

 Lake describe it as containing immense quantities of quartz ; and as Mr. 

 Crawford found slate cropping out in the bed of one of the upper tributaries of 

 the Wanganui, it is probable that the gold which is found on the bars of this 

 river, in increasing quantities as it is ascended, comes from somewhere in this 

 locality. Just to the south of Hauhangatahi, the Manganui-a-te-ao 7'iscs, 

 and flows thence south-westerly into the Wanganui River, after a course of 

 about thirty miles. Arou.nd its source, and for some distance towards the 

 Wanganui, there are open plains of joumice land covered with grass and flax, 

 but lower down it passes through what the Rev. R. Taylor describes as a 



