9 
C.— 13. 
Taipo Watershed, the eastern extension of payable gold in the Teremakau Valley. In the 
neighbourhood of Kumara the gold has its origin in part from the morainic hills of Dilhnanstown, 
and those that thence extend south-west to the granite belt at the western base of Turiwhate 
Mountain. The river-plain that extends from Kumara to the sea, and is limited to the south by 
Aker’s Creek, either contains, comparatively intact but covered over, a northern extension of the 
old high-level marine-drifts of the Houhou, Blue Spur, Ballarat Hill, and Lamplough Lead, or, if 
destroyed by the action of the river, its gold has gone to enrich the black-sand leads of the present 
beach-line and Drake’s Terrace on the southern bank of the Teremakau. The sequence of the 
rocks in the Teremakau Valley east of the granite belt is the same as farther to the north, the 
granite being succeeded by the mica-schist formation, and this by but slightly altered or unaltered 
formations of Devonian and Carboniferous age. On the boundary-line between the two last-named 
formations, quartz veins occur, and it is in this horizon that the reef on Jackson’s Hill has been 
found. The same line of reef runs over the range south-west into the valley of the Seven-mile 
Creek. On the northern bank of the Teremakau, opposite Jackson’s, the rocks are mica-schist, and 
on this side of the river it is not till passing to the eastward of the junction of the Otira that the 
corresponding rocks to those at Jackson’s are met with. 
Arahura Valley and District. — As formerly the Arahura occupied or wandered over the 
greater part of the Kapitea Basin, and also at one time had outlet from the same by way of Waimea 
Creek, the principal features of the Arahura, Kapitea, and Waimea may be described together as 
one district. As in other parts of Northern Westland the coast-line is backed by a low raised beach. 
Behind this at most places there is a steep face leading on to a high-level terrace. This is the 
region of the fine black-sand deposits containing gold equally fine. Next to the south-east rise the 
Tertiary hills, the valleys between which are filled with wash, either of a grauity or a sandstone type, 
according to its source — namely, of the first, the old moraines of the Arahura, or, of the second, the 
gravels of the “ Old-man bottom,” which arc present, the first to a large extent in the Kapitea 
Basin, and the last forming the highest beds of the Tertiary sequence, and is generally found on the 
top of the rocks which belong to that period. 
Between the Teremakau and the Arahura, eastward of the Waimea Hills, there is a very con- 
siderable development of glacier drifts that occupy the upper basin of Kapitea Creek and the lower 
and middle parts of the Kawaka Watershed back to the western boundary of the granite belt. The 
low grounds of the Arahura Valley, from Humphrey’s Gully to the sea, contain some considerable 
areas of river alluvium, more recent than the glacier deposits mentioned. Between Humphrey’s 
Gully and the junction of the Kawaka these are confined to the southern side of the valley ; but 
from half a mile abovo the crossing of the river, on the Christchurch- Hokitika Road, the alluvial 
flats are on both sides of the valley, and towards the mouth of the river the breadth of these 
increases till they join with those of the Three-mile to the south, and to the north leave but a narrow 
ridge between them and the lower Waimea Valley. South-east of Island Hill there is another 
considerable area of river alluvium between the first and second gorges of the Arahura, w'hile on 
the south side of the river, from the Christchurch-Hokitika Road to nearly abreast of the lower end 
of Kanieri Lake, there is a large development of gravels of the age of the “Old-man bottom” (Older 
Pliocene), overlain in parts by glacier deposits. These, with the underlying Tertiary clay, form the 
Humphrey’s Gully Range, interposed between the Arahura Valley and that of the Kanieri River. 
East of the granite belt, the limits of which are along a line crossing the Arahura at the foot of the 
second gorge, the rocks consist of a triple series of mica-schists, the middle and upper of which 
are divided by a baud of magnesian rocks, mainly Olivene. The crystalline rocks terminate near 
the upper end of the second gorge, and thence to the crest of the Southern Alps the rocks are 
unaltered Palaeozoic sediments. Gold is found in the Arahura Valley almost to the source of the river, 
and has afforded payable results to the foot of the second gorge. At the present time there are no 
workings above the foot of the first gorge cut through the great moraine between Island Hill and 
the east end of the Humphrey’s Gully Range. Recent developments at the opposite end of this 
range, on the Arahura slope from the Blue Spur, show that the auriferous deposits of this district 
are far from being exhausted. 
Hokitika Valley and Valley of the Three-mile Creek.— The Three-mile Creek drains but a small 
watershed ; but this is important as having yielded a large quantity of gold, and it would appear 
that its resources are as yet far from being exhausted. Near the sea the stream is sluggish, and on 
the north side its banks are low and covered by a heavy growth of forest-trees. On the south side 
the Houhou Terrace lies between it and the lower part of the Hokitika Valley. Below the line of 
the Houhou Lead, which crosses the creek at the Blue Spur Township, there is a moderately- 
sizeu flat bouuded by terraces on each side. This — the gravels of it — enriched by the destruction of 
the upper part of the Houhou Lead, proved very rich in gold. The upper valley has been 
encroached upon by an off-shoot of the Kanieri Glacier (rather that of the Browning Valley passing 
through Lake Kanieri), and the result has been the deposit of moraines of considerable magnitude, 
which, with the creek-gravels, are being worked for gold at the preseut time. 
The Lower Hokitika Valley forms a triangular flat between high terrace-lands to the north and 
south. These low grounds are partly due to river-action ; but near the seaboard the deposits in and 
w T est of Craig’s freehold must be regarded as formed by the sea. Between "Woodstock and the 
Lower Kanieri, at Kanieri Township, moraines stretch across the valley up the Kanieri River to the 
Forks, and, with the hilly country between Rirnu and Ross, bound thus on the south-western 
and north-western sides the low alluvial flats of the Hokitika Valley above the Kanieri Junction 
that include the Kokatahi Plain. The Kokatahi Plain is of considerable extent. It stretches north, 
south, and east to the limits of the mountains. The Kokatahi Plain proper lies on 'the north bank 
of the Hokitika, but here the term is used as applicable to the whole of the low grounds of this part 
of the valley. The Hokitika, in the middle of the plain, divides into two branches, the eastern of 
which is called the Kokatahi River, this again dividing into three main streams, all coming from 
the east or south-east. 
2— C. 13. 
