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APPENDIX. 
Its effects were most violent in the immediate vicinity of Wellington, 
where a tract of land of 4,600 square miles in extent was elevated to 
a height varying from one to nine feet, the greatest elevation being a range 
of hills called the Rimutaka (a spur from the Tararua mountains), which 
terminates abruptly at the sea coast in Cook’s Straits. 
This range, which appears to have been in the direct line of the subter¬ 
ranean action, was elevated nine feet, while the whole country as far as 
Wai-nui, about two miles northward of the foot of the road leading down 
the Pari-pari, was elevated with it, though the elevation at the last named 
point was on the sea coast very slight. On the Eastern side of the range is 
the valley of the Wairarapa, the centre of which is occupied by a lake. This 
valley and plain remain on the same level as before, the range of hills 
having gone up alone, forming a perpendicular precipice of nine feet in 
height, which has been traced to a distance of ninety miles inland. 
The valley of the Wai-rau, on the middle island (which appears to have 
formed part of a continuous basin with the Wairarapa), together with parts 
of the adjoining coast, subsided, during the shock, about five feet; so that 
now the tide flows eight miles further into the Wai-rau river than it 
formerly did. 
The harbour of Port Nicholson, together with the valley of the Hutt, is 
elevated from four to five feet, the greater elevation being on the eastern side 
of the harbour, and the lesser on the western. 
A rock, known as the “Ballet Rock,” a short distance from one of the 
points of Evans’s Bay, which was formerly two feet under water at the 
iowest tides, and over which was placed a buoy to mark its position, is now 
nearly three feet above the surface at low water. 
Very little tide now enters the Hutt river, in consequenee of the ele¬ 
vation. 
The Rimutaka range was very much shaken in its elevation, and a great 
many large slips occurred, laying bare the western side as Well as on the 
eastern. 
In the lower part of the valley of the Hutt, numerous hillocks of sand 
were thrown up, forming cones, varying from two to four feet in height, and 
in many parts of the valley iarge fissures were formed, with partial subsi¬ 
dences in many places. In the plains of the Manamatu this was the case to a 
much greater degree. 
In many places soft mud and slime were ejected, but this appeared more 
a mechanical effect than anything else, the liquid mud having pre-existed and 
been forced out at fissures formed during the vibration by superincumbent 
masses of more solid material. 
Upon the whole the province of Wellington will gain considerable advantage 
from the earthquake :— 
1st. Large portions of land can be easily reclaimed from the harbour for the 
extension of the town. 
2d. The main road to the Hutt and the interior formerly suffered occa¬ 
sionally from the action of the waves during high winds, and many parts 
had to be retained by a sea-wall; now it will escape the damage of the one 
and the expense of the other, and the whole of that valuable valley will be 
rendered, if possible, more healthy from greater facility of drainage arising 
from the elevation. 
3d. A much better coast road to the eastward is already formed for the 
temporary use of the colonists and the driving of cattle. 
Edm. Roberts, Royal Engineers. 
