1918.] The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
113 
Topography. 
The area examined is part of a wide depression between the Rangitoto- 
Tuhua and Tawairoa mountains, low ranges that lie respectively to the 
eastward and westward of the Te Kuiti district. The surface consists of 
a succession of ridges and valleys with a general north-and-south trend. 
The drainage is northward to the Waipa River, a tributary of the Waikato. 
The principal streams from west to east are the Waitomo, Mangapu, 
Mangaokewa, Mangarapa, and Mangawhero. The first and last of these 
have independent courses, but the others, of which the Mangaokewa is the 
largest, unite before joining the Waipa at Otorohanga. Near this town¬ 
ship are also the confluences of the Waitomo and Manga whero. A few 
miles to the south-eastward is the typical river-gorge by which the Waipa 
breaks from the Rangitoto-Tuhua Range. The Mokau River flows in a 
westerly direction immediately to the south of the Te Kuiti district, and 
a small portion of its basin was also examined. 
The highest points in the neighbourhood are the ridges and crests of 
the Rangitoto-Tuhua Range, which in Mount Rangitoto, fourteen miles east 
of Te Kuiti, reach a height of 2,829 ft. To the westward the Tawairoa 
Range forms broad uplands, which, in this portion of their length, to the 
northward rise gently from 1,000 ft. to 1,851 ft. above sea-level at Hauturu. 
In a general way the surface rises from the lowlands, traversed by the 
railway, gently and continuously eastward and westward, and, on the whole, 
there is also a steady rise to the southward. In this last direction the 
sinuous watershed between the Waipa and Mokau basins has, in the centre 
of the depression, an altitude of about 1,000 ft. 
In the upland country the headwater branches of all the streams are 
swampy, and flow in wide, shallow valleys. Down-stream these grade into 
deep, narrow gorges, which later open out and finally merge into broad 
terraced valleys. These have wide swampy flood-plains, traversed by the 
streams in intricate meanders. The Waipa is entrenched from 10 ft. to 
15 ft. below wide alluvial flats, and deepening of the stream-beds has 
proceeded along its branches for distances dependent on their size. In 
the neighbourhood of Te Kuiti remnants of two well-marked terrace-sets 
exist at heights of approximately 80 ft. and 240 ft. above the flats of the 
Mangaokewa. 
General Geology. 
The oldest rocks of the Te Kuiti district are fine-grained greywackes, 
which, when fresh, have a dark-bluish colour and flint-like appearance. 
The rocks are much jointed, and this, together with the general deep 
weathering they have undergone, makes determination of the structure 
difficult. They appear everywhere to have steep dips, and strikes that do 
not vary more than a few degrees from magnetic north and south. These 
rocks form occasional inliers in the eastern half of the area examined in 
detail; they appear nearly continuously along its eastern boundary, and 
farther eastward form the main mass of the Rangitoto-Tuhua Range. 
Westward the Tawairoa Range is formed of these rocks, though they are 
concealed to a greater or less extent by gently dipping Tertiary strata. 
The greywackes, which are not known to contain fossils, are considered to 
belong to the Trias-Jura system. 
In a straight line nineteen miles south-west from Te Kuiti the road from 
this township to Awakino and Mokau crosses the Mangaotaki River. This 
stream, a branch of the Mokau, exposes along its banks sandstones^ and 
8—Science, 
