130 
KOADS, PASSES, a X D AVAILA BLE LAND. 
In the two first parts I have already touched upon the position 
of the available land in the districts traversed by me, and I will 
now enumerate more fully what I conceive may he fit lor pur¬ 
poses of settlement. 
The Tiraumea plains consist of about 3,000 acres ol open land, 
the greater part of which is covered with grass, and the rest with 
scrub and fern. I estimate that one-half of it, say 1,500 acres, are 
fit for the plough. At the southern side of the Buller, where the 
Boto-iti and ltoto-roa rivers join, we find also some hundred acres 
of fern land, the major part of which, however, is too stony tor 
cultivation. For the first two miles up the lioto-roa river there 
- are some wooded flats, the alluvial soil of which seems to be ol a 
rich nature. West of Mount Murchison a large fiat occurs, 
which, near the river, is stony and scrubby, but towards the south 
is covered with forest on a soil of better quality. The valley ol 
the Owen, in some places a mile and a-half broad, contains a con¬ 
siderable quantity of good forest land, with patches ol grass land 
between. The Buller on its left bank below the Murchison, and 
its tributaries the Murchison and Mangles, have large quantities 
of level forest land, lying principally on a terrace forty to sixty 
feet above the level of the water. The vegetation here consists of 
kahikatea, rimu, totara, tawai, &c., mixed with black birch, 
which latter, in the higher ground, forms the whole forest. 
The Matakitaki plains contain, as far as I could judge, about 
20,000 acres of level land, with a very good soil. They lie on both 
banks of the Buller, and are in great part covered with totara 
forest. In some places, however, there are considerable tracts, 
clothed with high fern and scrub growing in a strong and fertile 
soil. Whichever main line of road may be ultimately adopted, a 
branch road into these plains may be necessary, inasmuch as not 
only will the available land there be useful for cultivation, but gold¬ 
mining pursuits will in future years make it the abode of a large 
mining population. There is also some very fine forest land 
covered with mixed wood, of which the totara is the most abun¬ 
dant, on the banks of the lower Maruia. 
In the Maruia plains there is a considerable quantity of land, 
the extent of which, including the terraces to the foot of the 
mountains, I calculated to be 23,500 acres, one-third of which is 
good agricultural land. The Grey country, as I have before 
stated, consists principally of well-timbered land, in which we 
find a mixture of all the various trees generally found in level 
forest, namely, totara, kahikatea, rimu, tawai, &c. Where the 
soil is poor, black birch predominates, whilst in other places 
totara and kahikatea form the principal part of the forest. Gene¬ 
rally speaking, the alluvial soil is very rich, and fit for every kind 
of cultivation. The grassy spots are mostly confined to the* banks 
ol the rivers and streams, and consist either of one single high 
terrace, or of several smaller ones rising above each other. 
