﻿132 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



(still called Wangaeliu) flow S.S.E. for about ten miles, skiiting a succession 

 of grassy plains, called respectively Eangiwhaea, Waitolii, Otumauma, Paraka- 

 kariki, Papatatangi, and Matahitira. As the river flows on its channel gets 

 deeper and deeper, till at Mataliitira it actually runs in a chasm from 300 to 

 400 feet deep, with precipitous sides, the plains forming, as it were, terraces 

 on the one or other bank. This chasm is generally ten chains or more in 

 width, and the actual river bed, which is but a few feet deep, zigzags across 

 it from side to side, between beds of shingle and volcanic sand overgrown 

 with bush. The streams which flow into the river descend very rapidly as 

 they approach the chasm, and in some cases have sheer falls of from 100 feet 

 to 150 feet in height, or a succession of cascades. On the western side of the 

 river the level bush country extends southwards to opposite Otumauma, and 

 below this Parakakariki and Matahitira are also on this side. A very easy 

 line of communication with the Manga where YtiUey crosses from Parakakariki. 

 On the eastei-n side the whole country down to a point sevei'al miles south of 

 Matahitira is broken into innumerable hummocks, the summits of which, 

 however, rise to a tolerably imiform level, and which are covered with black 

 birch bush. This description of country extends eastwards to the Turakina 

 Valley, or nearly so. Southward of Matahitira the river enters a wooded 

 gorge between high hills, and though the chasm soon afterwards disappears, 

 and the banks of the river become less precipitous, the valley is of an 

 extremely broken character, and for many miles is densely wooded. About 

 five miles below Matahitira the valley curves to the south-west round the 

 spurs of a high, mass of hills called Puke Whakapu, opposite to wliich, on 

 the eastern side of the river, is another high mass called Maunga-karetu. 

 Prom this bend to the junction with the Manga whero, fifteen miles distant, and 

 just above the inland boundary of the Wanganui block, the river runs in a 

 south-westerly direction, the valley gradually widening, and for the last three 

 or four miles becoming open. Just where the bush terminates, a large stream, 

 called the Mangamahu, flows into the Wangaeliu from the eastward. This 

 stream rises somewhere just to the eastward, or north-eastward of Maunga- 

 karetu, and from twenty-five to thirty miles due south of the summit of 

 Ruapehu. The valley of this stream is broad and well defined, and there is 

 some fine country, partly wooded and partly open, along it, which the natives 

 are proposing to pass through the Native Lands Court. Between the 

 Wangaehu and Mangamahu is a gradually ascending table ridge covered with 

 manuka scrub, along which an old war track to Taupo is said to have run. 

 Mr. Booth is at present endeavouring to reach the plains by this route, in 

 company with some natives ; but besides its being many miles to the eastward 

 of a direct line from Wanganui to Taupo, it appears to pass too high above 



