﻿Stewart. — On Foundation of Lighthouse in Ponui Passage. 135 



The ■whole of this country, iu fact, belongs to friendly tribes, who have made no 

 use of it for the last twenty or thirty years, and who are desirous of selling or 

 leasing it through the Court, as soon as purchasers or tenants can be found. 

 Fi'om the great amount of rain which falls in it, as compared with the lower 

 country near the coast, it is doubtful how far it is adapted to the growth of 

 grain crops ; but as a grazing district, and for dairy farms, it is certainly second 

 to none, and the richness of the soil and the immense amount of water power 

 available throughout it, seem to point it out as likely to be an important centre 

 of the flax cultivation and manufacture. The absence of high winds, the 

 warmth of the valleys, and the fact that the salt gales which occasionally do so 

 much damage near the coast, do not extend so far inland, also indicate that 

 fruibs, and other productions, which do not thrive in the coast settlements may 

 be grown here without difficulty. In fact, near Pipiriki, a place which enjoys 

 a similar climate, there is an orange tree which has borne fruit in the open air 

 for some years ; and grapes have been grown abundantly, and even wine made 

 from them, for a long time past near Ranana. Tobacco is also cultivated to a 

 considerable extent by the natives at most of the pahs on the Wanganui river, 

 and grows luxuriantly, and there can be no doubt that it can be grown at least 

 equally well throughout the country I have been describing. If the country 

 about the head of the Wanganui should prove to be auriferous, as I have 

 already stated there is reason to suppose it, or if the Kaimanawa or Kaweka 

 should ultimately prove so, as those who have visited them seem still to think 

 they will do, the importance of the Murimotu region can scarcely be estimated, 

 for, as far as I can learn, there is no other locality eqiially near and rich, from 

 which goldfields situate as above could draw their s^^pplies. All these things 

 seem to combine to show the desirability of calling public attention to this 

 portion of the province, and as I have reason to believe that your society would 

 not object to the means of doing so, I have ventured to trouble you with these 

 remarks respecting it. 



Akt. XI. — A Description of the Foundation of the lAghthouse in the Ponui 

 Passage. By J. Stewart, Assoc. Inst. C.E. 



{Read before the Auckland Institute, 31si Jidy, 1871]. 



The sandbank known to those engaged in the Thames traffic, and to all who 

 have journeyed there during the last four years as the "Sandspit," is a 

 well defined feature in the route, narrowing as it does the navigable channel at 

 Ponui, to a passage one-tenth of a mile wide. 



At extreme low water it dries to within about forty fathoms of its 

 extremity ; the water thence abruptly deepens from six feet to fifteen feet in 



